My Love Lies
by Sode no Shirayuki1411
Summary: fem!China's and fem!England's love lives were complicated enough as it was. The last thing they needed was their 2p!selves barging into their lives along with 2p!France, and 2p!Russia and another mysterious 2p!country. Things just got much more complicated. Written for a friend, parings inside.
1. Begonia

Chapter 1: Begonia

They were actually getting something done at a meeting of the former Allies. That alone should have tipped England off that something absolutely _horrific_ was about to happen. But at the time she just assumed the four of them were actually managing to stay on task because America had been kept in a bunch of meetings at his own country and had been unable to attend.

She secretly wanted to see him but out loud she told France that she was glad that annoyance was busy and unable to bother the rest of them.

Francis nodded and agreed wholeheartedly. Arthurine frowned, that was unusual, normally when she said something like that Francis would stand up for Alfred and tease her by pointing out that their fights were as much her fault as they were America's. Though now that she thought about it, Francis had seemed a bit annoyed at Alfred recently and Arthurine had no idea why. It was hard to make France genuinely aggravated.

She had just opened her mouth to ask about it when she heard a strange and totally random ripping sound behind her. She whipped her head around, half rising from her chair.

"Angleterra?" Francis asked, also rising, "what…?"

"There." England pointed to the source of the noise, a strange warped, portal-like _thing_ in the air. "What on Earth is _that?!"_

France's sky coloured-eyes looked blankly at the spot, "what is _what,_ Angleterra?" He asked.

_France can't see it, it must be magical_. England leapt from her chair, "everyone get back!" She ordered, throwing an arm out to prevent Russia and China, who had been seated across the table, from moving forwards.

China did as she was told, backing against the wall and dropping into a fighting stance with only a murmured, "aiya! What is going on?!" that Arthurine barely heard.

Russia backed up more slowly; he had pulled his pipe out from under his coat and moved to stand between China and whatever England was looking at. Yao bristled; she was a huge power now dammit! She could take care of herself! Though she was secretly touched by the gesture.

"Angle-" Francis began.

"Indulge me France," England said, waving him back a few steps. Reluctantly, he moved. Arthurine backed up a few steps as well but didn't move very far.

The moment she did there was a loud crack and the portal only Arthurine could see split open and four people tumbled out. Arthurine heard yells of surprise from not only from the four people who had come tumbling through what she was assuming was a portal but from her companions as well. _I guess they can see_ them_ though._

"Owchie!" One of the figures, a petite female with short, scruffy pink hair, picked herself off of the floor, rubbing her head and dusting off her skirt. She was wearing a floor-length skirt, in a dark shade of orange. She looked around her, "see? Told you I could do it!" She cried.

Arthurine's first thought was that the woman sounded like _her._ Though the tone was irritatingly high and cheerful in a way that England would never inflict upon herself or anyone else, there was no denying that was _her_ voice.

France seemed to recognize it too. He moved forwards to stand just behind England, "what on Earth?" He murmured. He broke off with a start as the woman turned towards them. Arthurine gasped,

Yao gave a surprised 'ai-_ya!'_ and even Russia made a noise of astonishment.

The woman in front of them was Arthurine.

The two were almost identical down to just about the last detail. As far as Arthurine could tell, there were only three things about them that were different, aside from their clothes. Where as Arthurine's hair was a dark blonde this woman's hair was _pink,_ rather than proper red.

This woman's eyebrows matched her hair colour, unlike Arthurine whose eyebrows were a dark brown. Where as Arthurine's skin was flawless this woman had a few cute (well, depending on your point of view anyway) freckles across her nose and cheeks.

The last difference between them was their eye colour. The other Arthurine had pale blue eyes. France's eyes were pale blue too, thought England, glancing at her companion, who was staring at the other her with a thunderstruck expression. But this woman's eyes were not like France's. Arthurine would rather die than tell him so, but she'd always thought France's eyes were gorgeous, like a cloudless blue sky. This woman's eyes were a more washed-out watery colour.

This was all Arthurine had time to take in before the other her was lunging forward, seizing one of England's hands between both of hers. France made a noise in the back of his throat and he felt rather than saw Russia and China tense behind him.

"Golly! Are you this dimension's version of me, that's so cool luv!" The woman exclaimed, eyes bright.

"Unhand me!" Arthurine yelped, more surprised than afraid. She yanked her hand away from the other woman.

The woman's companions slowly got to their feet. There were two males and another female. One of the males was dressed exactly like Russia, though his coat was a jet black and his scarf a deep purple. The other had shoulder-length, wavy, dirty blonde hair and was wearing a rumpled purple button-up shirt and equally shabby grey slacks.

The female stumbled as she got to her feet. Her hair was jet black, ending at the nape of her neck. They couldn't see her face because of the red military cap pulled down low. She was wearing a red military jacket similar to Japan's, though without the shoulder tassels. Her sleeves were scrunched up to the elbow and her pants matched her jacket. She wore a white singlet underneath. She looked incredibly unhealthy, she was Asian but her skin was a nasty shade of grey.

She seemed to be having trouble staying upright as she reached out to steady herself, her hand touched the shoulder of the male dressed like Russia. He jumped and made a very girly squeaking noise when she touched him but timidly allowed the contact.

The female who looked like England was not to be ignored. She opened her mouth to say something else when the male in the purple shirt behind her caught sight of the four countries staring at them wordlessly. He made a 'tch'ing noise and glared at them with surprise and distrust, "what have you done now woman?" He asked the pink-haired England.

She smiled, "I told you France! I said I could transport us to another dimension and I did! Lookie! They look just like the four of us! Isn't that neat?!"

"Thrilling beyond all comprehension," her companion drawled. If the pink-haired England noticed the sarcasm dripping from his voice, she gave no sign of it.

France gave a strangled gasp, England could see why, she'd gasp too if she could. But this just left her speechless.

The male speaker was an exact replica of France, the same eye-shape, face and build. Their only differences, like the two Arthurine's; this male's eyes were a ruby red and his hair a dirty blond as opposed to Francis's sky blue and gleaming golden.

The other England jumped forwards again, "so you're this dimension's me? Sweet! I'm England, this is France," she gestured to the red-eyed male beside her. "Russia," she gestured to the man in the black coat, now that he was no longer hiding behind his scarf they could see he had the exact same features as Russia except whiter hair and blue eyes so pale they were almost white, and a timid expression Russia had probably _never_ worn. The real Russia just smiled and said nothing.

"Ai-_ya_," breathed China, _oh God, now there are two of them_?! Her mind shrieked mentally, she stowed that thought away, _I'll worry about it later._ She was worrying about it_ now_ though.

"And China," the other England finished, this time gesturing at the sickly-looking Asian woman behind her.

"Aiya! _I'm _China!" Yao interjected; she was the oldest living nation, the last of the Ancients. There was no way she was releasing her title. Especially not to some hung-over, anaemic-looking waif who couldn't even stand straight.

The woman lunged forwards only to have the other Russia catch her and pull her back. "_I'm_ China, aru!" She snapped.

Yao wrinkled her nose; she wasn't even going to dignify this peasant _child _with a response. _I don't think so._

Though even Yao had to admit, the other woman did look exactly like her. Or she would if Yao had grey skin, maroon, almost red eyes, jet-black hair and chopped off her ponytail with a butter knife.

The other England held up her hands in surrender, "let me explain poppets. My name is Olivia Kirkland and where I come from, I'm the personification of the country England or Britain as some call me. This Jean Bonnefoy, he's France, Vadim Braginski, he's Russia and Yue Chung, and she _is_ China, our China anyway. What are your names?"

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**Well how was that? Not to confusing I hope? I named the chapter Begonia because that flower means 'beware.' Names:America-Alfred, 2p!America-Jake, China-Yao Wang, 2p!China-Yue Chung, England-Arthurine, 2p!England-Olivia, France-Francis, 2p!France-Jean (John), Japan-Kiku, 2p!Japan-Kuro, Russia-Ivan, 2p!Russia-Vadim. All the 2p!characters have the same surnames as their 1p!selves, except for China for some reason, I have no idea why.**

**Anyway, translations will be at the bottom. Normally I dislike putting random foreign words into sentences but since this is Hetalia I'll make an exception. And I'm calling England Arthurine instead of Alice or whatever. It's just closer to Arthur and I actually know a girl named Arthurine so it's not that weird a name, to me anyway. But it's not important.**


	2. Oleander

**Very special thanks to the amazing and wonderful melovesanimeforever (love that name! And your pic!) for being the first person to review this story and my fist ever reviewer! You have no idea how much that means to me. You're the only reason I continued. Anyway, I named this chapter 'Oleander' because it means 'caution.' R & R people! Enjoy!**

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Chapter 2: Oleander 

After she had introduced herself and the other Allies and explained away America's absence, England learned the whole story. Her 'other self' _"-just call me Liv, Poppet~!-"_ had been dared by France's other self, Jean to use her magic to open a portal to another world, just to prove she could. Apparently the countries from her world believed she _had_ magic, they were just a little sceptical about her ability to control it.

Arthurine shot a glare at Francis, "what?" He asked as Olivia chattered to the countries from her dimension and Yao and Ivan murmured to each other in Russian.

The blonde female sniffed and turned away from Francis, _"her _France believed _she_ had magic." She said, folding her arms.

A brief smile flitted over France's face. "I was wrong alright? I am sorry Angleterra."

Britain glared, "you'd better be! I remember when-" She broke off. She'd nearly said, 'I remember when you told me that only evil, corrupt monsters had magic,' but luckily she stopped herself just in time. That particular fight, though many hundreds of years old, was still a sore spot for both of them. England bit her tongue and sniffed again.

Luckily France wasn't paying that much attention to her; he was watching the 'other' nations. "They really do look just like us. Don't they ma cherie?" He murmured.

"Of course they do you dolt! They're another version of us! And don't call me that! I'm not 'your' anything you bloody Frog!"

"Aww!" Olivia came out of no-where and hugged her other self, "you are so cute when you snap and snarl like that!"

"Isn't she!" France agreed obnoxiously as Arthurine fought her other self off.

Britain brushed off the knee-length skirt of her pale blue 18th-century style dress once she'd managed to make Olivia let go of her. "Well, until Olivia and I figure out how to get you all back where you came from you'll all stay with this world's version of yourself. Tell no one about your coming here; we don't need any unnecessary trouble."

Yue Chung, the 'other' China, glared at Arthurine from where she was seated on the floor. "Why? Who're you to be giving the orders _Gongzhu?" _She demanded. Arthurine didn't back down. China might be a world power now but England hadn't been afraid of her when they'd met and she wasn't afraid of her now. Especially not _this_ 'China.'

"I'm the reason you are the way you are now, and if you cross me I'll kick your ass now just like I did back then. I don't care how powerful you think you are." Arthurine said bluntly.

Olivia smiled sheepishly, "my bad." When Jean rolled his eyes at her she shrugged defensively, "how was I supposed to know she'd become_ this_ addicted to _it?"_

Yue's head jerked up, "addicted to it? Addicted to WHAT?! I'm not addicted to anything! Bug off!" Then her eyelids fluttered and her head lolled to the side, "damn I'm tripping out." She murmured. Vadim nudged her tentatively then jumped away when she jerked upright again.

Arthurine rolled her eyes. She was glad Yao had enough good sense not to turn out like that.

"Everyone just take your other self home. I'll call you when I know something." England promised.

Yao, Ivan and Vadim, carrying Yue Chung, went one way as they would all be travelling home together. Arthurine, Francis and their other selves went the other.

They were in England now and the blonde's house was not far from the place the meeting had been held. They were all silent on the ride back to England's house, except for one request from Jean for Olivia to stop bouncing in her chair. Pouting, she complied.

Arthurine sat in the back between Jean and Francis and noticed Jean shift his legs to the left so her skirt wouldn't touch him. He then hurriedly pulled his left leg in so it wasn't touching Olivia's skirt either. He pulled his elbows in and hunched his shoulders, making sure not to touch the two females on either side of him.

Olivia didn't seem to be bothered by proximity and ruined his efforts by snuggling up beside him, wrapping both of her arms around one of his and ignoring Jean's repeated efforts to shrug her off.

Eventually he gave up and just sat there looking uncomfortable; this seemed to be nothing uncommon for him though so Arthurine and Francis left him as he was. Olivia released a contented sigh and rested her head against Jean's arm. She pulled her feet up underneath her and shut her eyes, humming slightly.

Jean reached down with tentative fingers to ever so slightly touch her pink locks. His fingers came into contact with short, soft, silky-looking strands. He looked slightly disgusted. Arthurine snickered silently; she'd kill to have _her _France be that conscious of personal space.

The ride was short, all four of them jumped out of the car as the driver went to park.

Olivia looked up at Arthurine's mansion. A huge, pristine white building with a large grey fountain with sparkling blue water out the front. The endless driveway wrapped around the fountain and ended at the front steps. Flowers grew right next to the house in orderly rows and on either side of the driveway were acres of endless green lawn. Out the back of the house where no-one could see Arthurine had mounds of rosebushes and other flowers as well as endless trees of every kind growing wild and free the way she liked them. But the front of her house was neat and pristine and orderly.

Olivia wrinkled her nose, "your house is a little boring don't you think luv?" She asked her blonde self. "My house is bright pink! And my fountain is yellow! With pink water! And my grass is orange!"

"And you still wonder why I don't visit." Jean muttered, Olivia ignored him. She seemed to have selective hearing.

"How on earth did you manage to make your water pink and your grass orange?" Francis asked Olivia, smiling.

She beamed back at him, "with magic of course!"

"Yes France. With magic. Because she can do that. _Just like me." _Arthurine said, folding her arms and glaring at her France. Jean snickered.

Francis smiled and rolled his eyes, "I said I was sorry _mon amour."_ He said, wrapping an arm around England's waist.

She elbowed him in the ribs, "back off you bloody Frog, like I said before, I'm not 'your' anything!" France groaned melodramatically and released her.

"Aww!" Olivia looked disappointed, "_I'd_ give anything for _my _France to call me 'my love'." She clasped her hands together and batted her long eyelashes at Jean.

"Don't hold your breath." He advised.

Francis winced, _poor thing._ He glanced at Olivia and saw the flash of genuine hurt and disappointment pass through her eyes, fast as lightning. The moment after the sad look was there, it was gone and Olivia plastered her usual smile back on her face.

_She loves him._ France realized. This was interesting; their England loved their France while he obviously didn't care for her at all. While in _Francis's_ world he loved _Arthurine _and was perfectly aware that _she_ had eyes only for Alfred. He wondered how Olivia felt about _her _America.

Arthurine had been watching Olivia, by chance; when Jean told her that he wasn't going to call her his love any time soon. The blonde female thought she saw a look of disappointment and hurt flash through Olivia's watery-blue eyes. But it was only there for a split-second so Arthurine couldn't be sure.

She unlocked the door and allowed the other three nations into her house. They all stepped inside.

Francis didn't say anything; he'd seen it all before.

Olivia bounced inside and twirled around, "there's so much space! Imagine what you could do with all of this! You could put in a pool table! Or a game centre! Or a dissection table like I did!"

"Err, no thank you." Arthurine said delicately, Olivia was kidding about the dissection table, right?

Jean whistled, "Not bad." He glared at her, "that's the highest compliment you'll ever get from me, understand?"

"I don't care." Arthurine told him truthfully.

Olivia stopped spinning, "you've never told me my house 'wasn't bad'." She said, troubled.

"And considering your interior is a frankly alarming shade of pink, I probably never will." Jean said honestly.

_Jerk, _Arthurine thought. He was as bad as Francis with her scones. It might be true, but there was no need for Jean to stomp all over Olivia's hopes and dreams.

Between Arthurine and Francis that conversation would have been enough to start a fight on a good day but Olivia just shrugged. "Guess I'll have to try harder then." She said and continued spinning.

Arthurine cleared her throat, "I was thinking that it would be too much of a bother to keep an eye on the two of you separately. And I'm sure the two of you would like to keep the company of someone you know so you can both stay here with me if you'd like."

"Yay!" Olivia grabbed Jean's arm and hugged it tightly, "we can stay together!"

Jean looked from the flowery blond Frenchman opposite him and the pinkette clinging to his arm, who would he rather put up with? With a mental shrug he decided putting up with Olivia was probably the less of the two evils. _Better the Devil you know,_ Jean thought. And he did mean _Devil._ He nodded at Arthurine wordlessly.

"Alright then," she turned to her France, "you can go home if you want to." She told him.

"Can I stay here too?" He asked.

England shrugged and nodded, one more person to watch these two, she figured.

"Now then I-"

Whatever she'd been about to say the other three never found out. At that exact moment the door burst open and a blond whirlwind named Alfred. F. Jones zoomed in. "Britain! Baby! Guess what?! I got out of my meetings early!" America whooped, ecstatic to be out of those boring meeting rooms at last.

He ran straight to Arthurine, not even seeing France and the two otherworlders. He picked her up as easily as if she were a doll and swung her around, ignoring her protests. Only when he had set her on her feet and turned to greet France (who he apparently_ had_ noticed after all) did he spot the two newcomers.

"Hi guys! I'm Alfr-" he stopped abruptly as he took his first good look at the two.

Olivia smiled and waved, Jean just glared.

America looked from the two of them to England and France, then back again, confused.

Arthurine sighed; she needed a cup of tea. "Come on into the sitting room Alfred and I'll explain."

Make that several cups of tea.

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**Next up; the Russia's, China's and ? Hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Geranium

**I don't own. Enjoy.**

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Chapter 3: Geranium

As the plane touched down in China, Vadim handed a sleeping Yue Chang to Yao as he and Ivan got back on the plane. Yao wished them both a safe journey, Ivan might terrify her, but he was easily her closest friend.

That didn't stop her from feeling incredibly sorry for Vadim. The second Russia looked incredibly nervous. All though Yao completely understood why, she acknowledged the fact that Vadim was a _total_ sissy. This wouldn't end well.

After she saw them off Yao turned to her chauffeur waiting with her car, "welcome back Miss China." The man said politely in Chinese. He glanced curiously at Yue, who hadn't even twitched this whole time, but said nothing.

Yao smiled, "good evening Zhou, how are your wife and daughter?"

The kindly man beamed, "wonderful, just wonderful."

He took Yue from her and buckled her in as Yao climbed in and sat down with a sigh. She thought it was funny how one could spend hours sitting down on a plane and the first thing you wanted to do was sit down.

"I'm too old for this," she grumbled quietly. She looked over at Yue who still hadn't moved since she fell asleep on the plane, despite being handled by three different people.

_Is she dead? _Yao leaned over her to check that her other self was, indeed, breathing. Naturally Yue picked that exact moment to open her eyes.

The first thing she saw when she awoke was Yao's face leaning over hers. So she did what any person would have done in her situation. Yue yelped with fright and jumped up, knocking heads with Yao. Both women cursed and clapped their hands to their heads. Yao's to her nose and Yue's to her forehead.

"Dammit! You cause me trouble when you're not even fully awake-aru!" Yao exclaimed.

Yue just rubbed her brow and sat up, looking much more alert than she had the last time her other self had seen her conscious.

"So you weren't a bad trip? Dammit!" She exclaimed. Yao scowled, if one of them was a bad drug-induced hallucination, it wasn't her.

Leaning back in her chair she rubbed her nose and sighed, "Why do I get the feeling you're going to cause me so much more trouble than you are worth?"

Yao was right. Yue was an absolute nightmare, she terrified the staff that came around occasionally, picked fights with Yao and seemed to be constantly high despite no longer having a source of opium. Occasionally Yao wondered if Yue faked having a drug addiction to get out of her responsibilities. At other times she was sure there was no drug addiction and Yue was just like this naturally. Eventually she snapped and hit Yue around the head with a wok, knocking the other China unconscious. Then she called Russia.

"I have _had _it-aru!" She snapped, clenching her phone so hard the plastic creaked. She began ranting the second Russia picked up. The moment she heard the word "privet," her rant began.

"I am fed up with this nonsense," the oldest of the nations snapped, "ever since those _things_ came to our dimension I've had nothing but loud-noises and madness! I don't know how you and the others are handling it but I am _done._ I'm not looking out for this brat for a second longer! She and her little friends can just _get out!"_

You knew it had to be bad when China, who had raised all of the Asian nations single-handedly, refused to put up with someone. "I think that-"

"Okay! Okay!" A Russian voice yelled, but it wasn't Ivan's. "We'll leave! I swear! Just please don't yell at me anymore!" His voice cracked on the last line.

Yao searched her memory for the other Russia's name, it wasn't hard to remember, Yue Chung never shut up about him.

"Vadim? Is that you?" She asked, hoping like hell it was just Ivan with a bad head-cold in a wimpy mood.

"Uh-huh, it's me," Vadim said. "I'm sorry I made you mad Miss Other-China." His voice was rapidly speeding up now. "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, really I am. I didn't think we'd be staying this long, I mean, it's already been a week. Or eight days? I can't remember. I'm so sorry, pleasedon'tyellatmeagain."

"Vadim calm down," Yao ordered with a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, "I'm sorry. I should have not yelled at you. I am just under a lot of stress right now. But that doesn't give me an excuse to take my feelings out on you, even if I did think you were Ivan. Please forgive me."

"W-what?" Vadim sounded both incredulous and hopeful, "no one's ever apologized to me before! Not for anything! But you don't need to apologize Miss Other-China; I understand that you're stressed. Yue can be a bit much," he added in a softer voice. "But she's a good person deep down inside! Probably…"

"I'll take your word for it Vadim," Yao said. She personally thought this kid was far too hopeful and that Yue was an irredeemable nut-case. "And just Yao is fine." She added as an afterthought.

"Yao…" Vadim tried out her name thoughtfully; it had a nice ring to it. "What a pretty name."

"It's a guy's name, aru; it makes no sense that I was named that." China replied, puzzled,_ he certainly is an odd one._

"I dunno," Vadim disagreed, "I like it. It's pretty, you're pretty, I think it works."

"Oh," Yao blushed slightly, "thank you Vadim, what a nice thing to say." She had always liked her name, even if it was a boy's one and she was glad to see that someone else liked it too. Plus that had been a very nice thing to say,

Yao didn't get complimented often and she found Vadim's comment incredibly sweet. Ivan had never complimented her like that.

"Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Yue is becoming a bit too much for me. I was hoping you and Ivan could find it in your schedules to visit my country tomorrow so we could discuss what has happened so far and then maybe contact England and France." China said, she just wanted something to do really.

"Oh, sure, I'll ask." There was the sound of the phone being shuffled and Vadim's voice calling, "Mr. Ivan!" Then the sound of footsteps and more shuffling.

"This is Ivan," the voice on the other end of the phone said sweetly.

"Ivan. I want you and Vadim to meet me at my house tomorrow to discuss what we plan to do before we contact England and France." China said briskly, she felt so much more confident talking to Ivan. He might scare the living daylights out of her sometimes but at least she was back on familiar ground. Though Yao had to admit, talking with Vadim had been unexpectedly… nice…

"Sounds good. We'll be there by three-thirty," Ivan said, not missing a beat. Yao smiled.

"Good, I will see you then." She promised. They said goodbye and then they both hung up.

No sooner had Yao pressed the 'end call' button, then her phone rang again. She glanced at the caller ID and nearly dropped it when she saw who it was, _what could he want?_ She wondered.

Heart thudding slightly (though she would never admit it), Yao answered the phone, "Japan, aru?"

"Good evening Yao-chan," Kiku's warm, soft voice said from the other end. He'd called her 'Yao-chan' not 'China-san' so that meant he hadn't called her on official business. That made China even more curious. Japan never called her of his own free will.

"What's going on Kiku?" She asked, China didn't want to be blunt and straight-out ask why he was calling, that would give the impression that she didn't want Japan to call when it was simply the opposite. However, she was insanely curious now.

"Do I need a reason?" Kiku asked, if Yao hadn't known him his whole life she never would have caught the slight trace of amusement on the edge of his voice, it made her heart thud erratically.

_Give it up Yao, he's a nation. And he's your little brother!_ Yao mentally scolded herself, she couldn't help the way she felt about Japan though. And though he had been her little brother once he hadn't called himself that in a very long time. He had changed drastically since back then. He was no longer the young child who clung to the hem of Yao's dress, but a calm and capable adult with wisdom and grace far beyond even his many years.

_But not as many as mine though._ Yao reminded herself sternly. But if she didn't like guys hundreds of years younger than her she wouldn't be able to crush on anyone, so that didn't help.

"Well I don't have a reason. Is that a problem?" Kiku asked. Yao's heart rate sped up even faster.

_You traitor, even if he doesn't consider himself your brother any more he's still the kid you raised, you're betraying his love for you._ That was the problem though. Like everyone else in the world, Yao couldn't control who she fell for. If she could she would have chosen to crush on someone sensible, maybe even Russia. Certainly not her younger foster brother.

"That's no problem at all," Yao said truthfully. "What would you like to talk about?"

They chatted about trivial things for a while then bid each other good-bye as it approached dinner time. Yao set down her phone and turned towards the kitchen to decide what to have for dinner. She stopped when she saw Yue leaning on the doorframe, smirking.

"What?" Asked Yao, not in the mood to argue.

"You like him~!" Yue drawled a teasing gleam in her eye. At least she appeared to be sober once more.

'I do not," Yao lied bluntly; _I'm having enough trouble convincing myself that I don't like Japan. Don't you make this harder for me, _she warned mentally. Yue, not possessing mind-powers, naturally didn't hear this.

She shrugged, "that's fine Yao, it's cool with me. I mean, it's not like he's your blood brother or anything but-" she shrugged, "-you're aware that your creepy-ass Russia's in love with you, right?"

"I'm aware he wants me to join 'Mother Russia,' if that's what you mean." Yue's more serious self replied, "it is nothing new, trust me."

But Yue shook her head, "nope, he's in love with you, I can tell."

"And how can you tell?" Yao asked, crossing her arms over her chest, feeling as though Yue was a small child trying to explain a complicated algebra question she didn't understand to an adult.

"Because," Yue popped her lips, "the personifications in this world are the opposite of the personifications in my world, right?"

"I suppose that makes sense," Yao agreed.

"Well in my dimension my Japan loves me but I don't really like him. I'm in love with Vadim," she said. Yao hadn't known that. Yue certainly was very honest about her feelings. "And in this world you love your Japan but he doesn't feel that way about you so logically-"

"-My Russia is in love with me and I don't feel that way about him," Yao finished, seeing where her other self was going with this. "You are right about the second part, aru. I don't feel that way about Ivan. But I am sure you are mistaken about the first part. I am certain Ivan is not in love with me. I would know about it if he was."

"Okay." Yue shrugged and pushed off the doorframe, "believe what you want to. Either way, we'll figure it out tomorrow." She walked off.

"Yes. Yes we will. Tomorrow is looking to be very interesting indeed." Yao agreed quietly.

Unbeknownst to Yao the portal Olivia had opened for her companions opened again and a small, slender figure, clothed in black tumbled through.

"Ow!" The figure hissed, he stood slowly, straightening his black cap. His maroon eyes flicked from right to left. "Where the hell am I?"

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**Now you see the problem my pretties? R & R people. Seriously, I didn't hear from anyone last chapter and it hurts my heart. Who is this mysterious figure? Will Yao's feelings for Kiku ever come to anything? Am I talking to myself? Find out on the next episode of DRAGON BALL Z! **

**Kidding, just R & R people, if you do I'll keep writing and I want to keep writing. I don't want to dump a fic, it just seems like a waste. **

**I said the parings were inside, didn't I? Well here they are. This is going to be a 1p & 2p NiChu vs RoChu and a 1p & 2p FrUK vs USUK. But only YOUR review will decide who wins!**

**PS: I named this chapter 'Geranium' because it means 'stupidity & folly.'**


	4. Purple Hyacinth

**MUCH thanks to** **MadMentalPersonInTheEmoCorner for favoriting this story! You are so amazing. Ok guys here's chapter 4. I'm really getting into this one, I thought I was going to completely disregard it in favour of Austria's Musical but I haven't and I'm glad I haven't. Well, let's get this party started, R & R people. I don't own.**

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Chapter 4: Purple Hyacinth

Arthurine sighed as she reclined in her chair by the old-fashioned fire place, Jean, asleep on the couch, mumbled something, but stayed asleep. Arthurine couldn't help but smile at him.

She had never thought of Francis as closed-off, no, that was her job. Jean on the other hand gave even Arthurine a run for her money. A self proclaimed misanthropist Jean was even more abrasive than Arthurine, though thankfully he wasn't snarky like she was.

Olivia on the other hand, was even more outgoing than Francis, albeit in a much less sexual manner. Currently the two of them were in the kitchen making dinner. Francis had been assured of Olivia's cooking skill when she had made cupcakes the other day. "She really is your opposite Angleterra!" He cried, "these cupcakes are exquisite!"

"Oh you," Olivia giggled, blushing, while Arthurine grumbled. She could too cook.

But she was going to have to take Francis's word for it that Olivia's cupcakes were amazing. She hadn't tried one after Jean –who was apparently an awful cook also- had leaned over and whispered, "She puts people in them. That's her secret."

Arthurine had dropped her cupcake and not touched one since. She was _reasonably _sure Olivia didn't put people in her cupcakes; Francis would have noticed if she had, right? And Olivia hadn't left the house except to go into the yard since she'd gotten there. So since Arthurine wasn't missing any of her part-time servants or the postman she was reasonably sure Jean had been lying or was misinformed. _Reasonably._ Besides, how did one put_ people_ in _cupcakes?_ Either way she decided to err on the side of caution.

After dinner (which even Arthurine had to admit was divine) Olivia decided to go straight to bed. She'd gotten up at the crack of dawn, getting Arthurine and Jean up along with her.

Jean had grumbled and given her his darkest look, but was used to Olivia waking him up with the sunrise and other then that made no complaints.

Arthurine had outright tried to kill her. Olivia smiled, she had high blood pressure, maybe Arthurine's was low and that's why she had trouble getting up in the morning? Maybe she was just a grouch? Either way Olivia found her blonde self's attempts to murder her with a book unbearably cute.

She'd decided to let Francis sleep in. She knew Jean well and Arthurine was her other self so she felt like she knew her too. But she barely knew Jean's other self at all and Olivia was secretly uncomfortable around people she didn't know well, despite how peppy she always acted. It was just that, an act. Only Jean, Jake (her America), and James (her Canada) were aware of this though. And she was pretty sure only Jean remembered. That was why she loved him so much; he always remembered every little thing she told him, down to the last detail. This meant that telling Jean things occasionally came back to bite Olivia on the butt later on but she wouldn't change him for the world.

Humming to herself Olivia got changed into a long pink nightgown Arthurine had lent her and climbed into bed in the guest room she was using. Laying her pink head down on the pillow Olivia very quickly fell asleep…

_"You know, you were right. Love doesn't last," Olivia commented gleefully, kicking at the ashes of what used to be a pyre, "at least _her_ love didn't." She laughed, a bubbly giggle that seemed out of place in this desolate surrounding. _

_Kneeling in the dust Jean didn't look up, "why Olivia?" He asked, his voice barely a whisper, "why the only girl I ever loved?"_

Olivia frowned; he'd called her by her human name. Jean never did that. She thought it would make her happy that he was addressing her so informally but it actually made her feel even more distant from him. "

_Why?" Her smile vanished, as did her good mood. She wanted to scream at him, _'why did you like her better than me?! What made _her _so special?! Why can't you see that _I_ love you?! Why was_ she _the only person you ever looked at?!'  
_  
"I don't know what you're talking about Jean," she replied in a sickly-sweet voice, plastering her smile back on her face, "she broke the law, my King punished her, I don't make the rules, I follow them."_

_"Liar, you were behind this."_

'You're exactly right, she was in my way, and I removed her. It's your own fault. If you hadn't dismissed me and broken my heart I wouldn't have had to kill her. But you ignored me, as always.' _She thought. _

_Out loud she said, "Why would I do that dearie?"_

_Jean glared at her with such venom it made even Olivia, who didn't scare easy, stumble back, hands instinctively tightening on her pink parasol. _

_"Because you're a pathetic excuse for a person who doesn't care about anyone or anything but herself." He spat, a look of utter disgust and contempt on his face._

_Olivia's blue eyes widened, Jean would never know how much his words hurt her_, 'that's not true, I did this because _I love you _and I want to protect you. She'd die anyway Jean, she'd die and leave you all alone even without my help, she was only human, I just want what's best for you, don't you see?'

_Masking her emotions as she always did, with bubbly high-spirits, Olivia pouted dramatically, "aww! That's a bit mean Jeanie!"_

His glare, if possible, intensified, "don't you dare call me that. You have no right!"

_Olivia didn't know what to say to that, she opened and closed her mouth a few times before taking a few steps forwards until she was close enough to reach out and touch his hair or shoulder if she wanted to, "I'm _not_ trying to hurt you Jean." She said softly._

_Jean rose, they were very close, their chest's nearly touching but Jean was significantly taller, Olivia had to crane her neck back to look into his ruby eyes. There was no more anger or even hate in Jean's eyes just a deep, quiet sadness that made Olivia's heart clench._

_She would have preferred the hatred if it meant Jean wasn't sad. She hated, hated,_ hated_ when Jean was sad. _

_Olivia was actually a pretty emotional person, the reason she acted so cheery and upbeat all the time was because she was desperately trying to cheer the chronically depressed Jean up. It worked occasionally and Olivia lived for those times._

_Jean leaned closer so he could look directly into Olivia's eyes, he was so close he could count every one of her pink eyelashes or the freckles on her cheeks. "You could've fooled me," he replied._

_Jean walked off, Olivia's legs trembled, her knees buckled and then it was her turn to fall to her knees in the ashes that was once Jeanne d'Arc's funeral pyre. She pitched forwards again and, dropping her parasol, caught herself with her hands. Her finger's curled in the dust. _

_"Dammit."…_

Olivia's blue eyes snapped open. Sitting up, she felt something on her cheeks, touching one, she discovered it was wet, "why did I dream about that, it was so long ago," she whispered. She shook herself and lay back down, shutting her eyes. Though she tried to go to sleep Olivia couldn't help but think about what had happened after that…

_A week, that's how long she'd lasted before she'd run to Jean, begging his forgiveness. _

_"I'm sorry, I just didn't want to see you get hurt, I didn't understand why you liked her so much better than me. But now I do, you were right, I'm awful Jean. But I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I just didn't want to lose my only friend to someone else!" _

_Jean had walked up to her slowly; Olivia's breath had caught in her throat, for a brief moment she feared he might strike her. Olivia wasn't afraid of Jean, she was the stronger of the two and had been for quite some time, and even if she wasn't Olivia wasn't sure she could ever bring herself to be afraid of Jean. But she didn't know what she'd do if he tried to hurt her. _

_Jean reached a hand towards her. Olivia flinched and squeezed her eyes shut but didn't back away. Jean's hand ruffled her hair. "Liv," he said, calling her by her nickname for the first and last time, "if you're worried about me or what I'm doing just say so next time, alright?"_

_In a daze, Olivia nodded, right then she would have agreed to just about anything he said, "Alright Jean, I will." And just like that Jean forgave her._

_He scoffed and rolled his eyes as he walked off, "not that I care or anything," he assured her._

_A smile split Olivia's face; she ran after him and jumped, swinging off his arm. Jean groaned and complained under his breath, but didn't shake her off, he never did. Olivia glowed with happiness, they were back to the way they usually were…_

Olivia smiled and turned over. That story had a happy ending but it wasn't going to help her get back to sleep. Olivia wasn't a particularly light sleeper, to put it mildly, but once awoken she found it nearly impossible to get back to sleep, which was why she got up so early each morning.

She rolled over onto her other side to glance at the clock; it read 12:34am. Olivia sighed; the others might not even be in bed yet. She hoped Jean was though. There was _one_ way Olivia could get back to sleep.

Padding down the hall she knocked once, softly before opening the door a crack, "Jean?"

France's other self looked up from the book he was reading, "Olivia?" He hadn't called her 'England' _or _'Liv' since they made up after Joan of Arc and now just called her 'Olivia' or 'woman' or simply 'hey you.' Needless to say, she preferred the first one.

Olivia slipped inside the room and moved over to her fellow country. Jean marked his page and set the book on the shelf beside his double bed. "Bad dream?" He asked in an unconcerned voice.  
Olivia smiled; "in a… manner of speaking…"

Jean rolled his eyes and moved the corner of the blanket back so Olivia could crawl onto the bed beside him, "fine, since I know you won't quit bugging me until I say yes, but this is the last time _ever,_ understand?" He said, just like he said every time.

"Okay. This is the last time ever," Olivia agreed, just like she did every time.

Jean snorted, but didn't push the point. He turned off the bedside light and lay down. Instantly Olivia scooted closer to him and laid her head down on his bare chest. Jean wrinkled his nose. He hated physical contact, a fact which Olivia well knew and had spent the last several decades trying to cure him of. He hated it to the point where it was physically uncomfortable to have someone he didn't know even brush his arm. Olivia, whom he knew better than anyone else in the world, was much less uncomfortable. But that didn't mean he liked it.

He looked down at Olivia who had immediately fallen back into a deep sleep. The only way she could return to sleep after being awoken was for her to be with him. Jean almost smiled. However if physical contact got her to shut up and fall asleep, it might just be worth it.

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**D'aww. This chapter ended up being all about Jean and Olivia, at least you know a little more about how they really feel about each other now. Say what you will about Olivia but she does genuinely love Jean. Anyway, I named this chapter 'Purple Hyacinth' because it means 'I'm sorry/Please forgive me & sorrow.'**


	5. Gladioli

**Many thanks to Ziz-Voice of the storm for favoriting and putting this story on alert. Thank you so much! I don't own. Enjoy. R & R people.**

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Chapter 5: Gladioli

_Well,_ thought China, _this is awkward. _She and Vadim stared at each other. _This is_ really_ awkward._

She shifted uncomfortably, "so." She said, breaking the silence, "do you… like… tea?"

Vadim just stared at her wordlessly.

_Oh this is going to be a long day. _Yao thought.

What had happened was this, Ivan and Vadim had come over, just as they had promised they would. Then while the other three chatted, or rather, Yue fell asleep in a terrified Vadim's lap and Ivan smiled creepily at the two of them, Yao called England.

The other woman had apologized profusely but she hadn't been able to make much headway, apparently Olivia wasn't much help either. Arthurine had been kept a little busy however, by having not only Olivia but Jean and Francis in her house.

When she heard Yao's complaints about Yue she suggested China do the same thing she had, but China was_ horrified_ at the idea of having not only her other, awful, self at her house but _both Russia's _too. When she told England that Arthurine suggested that both China's go stay at Russia's house then so he could be the one to deal with Yue.

Yao thought that was an even worse idea. She'd spent hundreds of years trying to get_ out_ of living at Russia's house; she certainly wasn't going there when there were two of them, even if there were two of her as well.

However when Arthurine heard Yao comment that Vadim was 'not that bad' she made a suggestion that Yao had, at the time, not thought was too dumb. She'd suggested a swap.

Give Yue to Ivan, who could almost certainly handle her, and take care of Vadim herself.

Yao had run the idea by the other three and when they all consented, she agreed. Yue didn't want to stay with Yao any more because apparently her good self was 'no fun.'

Ivan didn't really care either way but wanted to do what would make Yao happy, secretly he was also pretty happy to have a companion, any companion up in that huge, empty house of his.

Vadim just wanted to get away from Yue and Ivan and apparently thought there was no way Yao could be any worse (not that he said so in so many words).

So with the deal made Ivan and Vadim went to get some things for Vadim and Yue and Yao packed the other China's stuff. She didn't have much, just a toothbrush, hairbrush and some clothes Yao had given her so they finished long before the guys got back.

While they waited the sat quietly in the living room. Or at least Yao did, Yue lounged on the floor and wasn't nearly as quiet. "Gotta say, it's been fun Yao but I'll be glad to get out of here," she yawned, "I'm so bored."

"Thanks," Yao said wryly, "I'm sorry my old-lady lifestyle is too slow for you."

Yue shrugged, "even if it wasn't, I'd still be glad to go with your Russia, I'm curious to see which one of us is right about the whole love-triangle thing."

Yao growled under her breath, "I'm telling you, there _is no love triangle. _Ivan. Does. Not. Like. Me. That. Way!"

"If you say so," Yue said evilly, not looking at all convinced.  
"I hate to point this out but love triangles are actually very uncommon in real life, this isn't a Japanese anime, aru!" Yao said. The two China's lapsed into silence until the two Russia's came back.

Yue hoisted her pack onto her shoulder and turned to give Yao a wave as she and Ivan walked off. "Bye Vadim! Bye Yao! Take good care of him for me!" She yelled in an uncharacteristically peppy voice, "oh, and Yao, good luck with your Japan!" She called as an afterthought, smirking.

Ivan stopped dead.

After a second or two he turned back to Yao, a strangely solemn, almost hurt, expression on his face. "What's this about Japan?" He asked softly, though his voice had no problem carrying across the still snow.

Yao squirmed inwardly, why did she feel guilty all of a sudden? She didn't like Ivan that way and he didn't like her that way, and even if he did, she had the right to date and fall in love with whomever she pleased.

"Nothing Ivan. Yue Chung was merely referring to a conversation we had the other day." Yao said, she glared daggers at Yue, daring her other self to contradict her.

"I'll tell you everything later," Yue promised Ivan quietly, if Yao heard them she gave no sign, but Yue didn't think she had.  
She lifted a hand in another wave, "later." Then she turned and walked to the car without a backwards glance, Ivan hurrying to catch up. 

"So you're in love with your Japan?" Vadim questioned.

Yao looked at him, taken aback, she'd asked if he liked tea and this is what she got?

"Umm, er, of course I love him! I mean, I raised him after all. But I'm not in love with him if that's what you mean. Aiya! That would be silly." Yao said lamely, laughing hysterically. That was a bad lie, even for her,

Vadim didn't look even remotely convinced.

"What's his name?" Vadim asked softly.

Yao sighed, "Kiku," she said, giving up the game completely, "his name is Kiku." How was it that Yue and Vadim, who had never even met Kiku, could see Yao's biggest personal secret but Ivan, who had known Yao for so long, couldn't? Maybe that was it, Vadim and Yue didn't know her so they were able to see everything from a third-person perspective.

Vadim smiled gently at her, "he's a really lucky guy. I hope he knows that."

Yao smiled, Vadim was really nice, she laughed, "no. No way. I could never tell him. I'm practically his older sister, aru. He would be disgusted in me and I," she swallowed at the thought, "I would never be able to face him again."

Vadim's ice-blue eyes looked confused, "why would he do that? If I were him, I'd be thrilled you had a crush on me."

"No. If you were him, you'd think I was a paedophilic freak," Yao said bluntly, she'd had very many years to come to term with the facts. "Sweet of you to say that though," she added as an afterthought.

"I wouldn't think that!" Vadim argued passionately, "you're so nice and considerate, and you don't take heroin, and you're smart and you're so pretty, plus, I bet you don't show your Japan you like him by showing up at his house in the middle of the night and harassing his people!"

"Is that what Yue Chung does to you?" Yao asked absently, remembering that her other self had told Yao that she loved Vadim and knowing full-well that Yue had a habit of irritating servants if left unsupervised.

"No, that's what Kuro, our Japan, does to her," Vadim said softly, "he doesn't scare her as much as she scares me but that's just because she's braver than me, he's much more persistent. And frequent."

Yao scowled, not sure whose side she wanted to take. On one hand she sympathised with Yue, having a country you knew well turn psycho stalker on you could really make things stressful. On the other she didn't blame poor Kuro for being messed up if _Yue_ had raised him like Yao had raised Kiku.

"I hope she doesn't treat him the way she treats you," she said sharply.

Yao disapproved of the way Yue treated Vadim, always following him everywhere and invading his personal space, getting up in his face when he was clearly uncomfortable but if she treated her foster brother who was in love, or at least infatuated with her, like that she would lose all respect for her other self.

Vadim shook his head, "she doesn't really like him but she treats him okay. She's not mean to him at least."

Yao breathed a sigh of relief, maybe Vadim had been right and Yue was actually a tolerable person deep down. Then again, maybe not.

The moment they set foot inside his large house Russia turned to Yue Chung, "now. You tell me what Yao was talking about, da?" he said with a smile that made Yue's heart rate accelerate with adrenaline and her fight-or-flight kick in, causing her body to tense. She loved every second of it.

She smiled, "_well,_ I probably _shouldn't,_ Yao might get mad."  
Russia grabbed her arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to make sure she didn't go anywhere, not that Yue had made the slightest attempt to escape.

"I don't think you understand." He said, still smiling pleasantly, "Japan has hurt China in the past, he betrayed her once and she never got over it. If he hurt her again I would get very…wound up."

Yue smiled again, now his grip on her arm was starting to hurt, never before had Yue been in the presence of another country who was so easily able to hurt someone, even without trying. She would be lying if she didn't envy Russia's, _this _Russia's, strength, even just a little bit. She loved Vadim deeply but she couldn't deny there was something in her, some instinct, whether as a country or as a human being Yue wasn't sure, that was attracted to Ivan's strength.

She guessed it was a human something, not a nation something, Vadim and Yao were nations also and they seemed rather unnerved by Ivan's strength. Yue smiled inwardly, if Ivan thought he could intimidate her with his strength he had another thing coming.

"_Really?"_ She drawled, "_Japan_ is bad for her? Do go on Ivan, I'd be curious to see what Yao would say about _that."_

He dragged her into the living room, lifting her clean off of her feet by her arm and set her in front of a thick padded armchair, none too gently he pressed down on the top of Yue's shoulders, forcing her to sit. Then he shoved a glass of wine into one of Yue's hands and knelt to make the fire in the old-fashioned fire place, much like the one England had, though Yue wasn't to know this.

Ivan's face never lost its smile, "I believe in being honest in my intentions. I cannot say the same for Japan. I believe you of all people can appreciate that?"

Yue suddenly had a vivid flashback of her first Sino-Japanese war, of sitting in the foetal position, arms over her head under her western-style table as Kuro ripped her house and its surroundings apart. That had to be the only time in history, no matter what had happened to her, which Yue could remember being genuinely terrified of another nation.

That just made Yue more stubborn, her Japan was bad so Yao's wasn't, Ivan wasn't helping his own case. She had gone from teasing him by withholding information to flat-out not wanting to give it to him.

"Nope!" She popped her lips on the 'p.' "I'd rather watch you squirm." She slouched sideways in her chair, draping her legs over one of the arms.

Ivan sighed.

Yue glanced down at the wine he had given her, in the dim light the red liquid looked like blood.

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**I named this chapter Gladioli because it means 'Give me a break.' Hope you enjoyed. Didn't mean to cause any racial offense if I did so. **


	6. Hydrangea

**OK! It feels like it's been such a long time but here I am! Many thanks go to Hannibalrider for favoriting this story and following this story and yours truly. You rock!  
And now we're back with Jean and Olivia along with their 1ps. I'm glad; these 4 are so much easier to write. Enjoy, I don't own.**

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Chapter 6: Hydrangea

Arthurine sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she shut yet another spell-book without getting any results. Francis looked at her and she shook her head.

He smiled at her sympathetically and went back to signing documents.

Arthurine picked up another spell book and flicked her hair out of her eyes. She had been searching for weeks and still had nothing.

Olivia was no help at all; Arthurine found she actually got more done when the bouncy pinkette was _out _of the room.

So Arthurine was studying spellbook after spellbook while Olivia picked flowers or talked with Jean or murdered unsuspecting bystanders or whatever it was the other England did in her spare time.

Arthurine had barely opened the newest book when she growled in frustration and flung it over her shoulder. That was a book for cooking spells! It was going to be _absolutely useless!_ Not to mention Arthurine had no idea when or where she'd gotten a_ cooking_ spellbook. Her cooking was fine on its own thanks!

Francis walked over to her and rubbed her shoulders reassuringly, "take a walk Angleterra, you'll feel better. Don't give in, we need you, you're the only one who can do this."

His kind words made her smile and Arthurine touched one of the hands on her shoulders as she looked up at him. Truthfully Francis had been nothing but kind to her since their other selves had shown up. Maybe the way Jean treated Olivia had made Francis vow to treat Arthurine kindly, as much as they fought, their other selves were living proof that their relationship could be a lot worse. The way Olivia treated Jean had made Arthurine promise herself she would always respect _her _France's personal space.

"You're right, I think a walk might do me some good." Arthurine wouldn't trade the love-hate-physical violence relationship she had with Francis for the world but she had to admit the past few weeks of him being nice to her had been…well…_nice._ "Thank you for being so nice to me all the time," she said sincerely, "I don't know why you're doing it but…thank you."

Francis looked bemused and rubbed one of her shoulders as she stood, "you think I have an ulterior motive, _ma cherie?_ What if I don't? What if I'm just being nice to you because I feel like it?"

Arthurine snorted in an unlady-like way and turned so she could look into Francis's blue eyes.

She blinked, disorientated, had France's eyes always been such a vivid, bright blue? They were… mesmerizing… What had she been about to say again?

"You…you always have an ulterior motive to be nice to me Frog." She said, giving herself a mental head-shake.

"But if I don't?" Francis asked, leaning down so their eyes were almost on level. He was very close…

England snorted again and grabbed one of Francis's blond locks, yanking on it, forcing his head down and breaking eye-contact. "Yeah right, like I'll believe that. You're going to have to do better than this, you damn Frog!" She said.

"I'll remember that mon amour," Francis said, smiling wryly and rubbing his head.

Rolling her eyes England walked off, _get it together Arthurine, anyone looking at you now would think you're in love with Francis, not Alfred. And you're _not,_ I'm not. I'm NOT._

That reminded her, she needed to call America, she normally kept in regular correspondence with him but since her and France's other selves had come to stay with them she hadn't had much association with anyone but the three of them, her boss, the two Chinas and the two Russias.

This annoyed her. While she didn't really mind Olivia and Jean, their presence was keeping her from the things she usually did.

After explaining to America why there were two Englands and two Frances in her house and forcing him to promise to stay silent Arthurine had chatted with Alfred about trivial things for a few minutes before it all just got too weird and he left. She hadn't seen or heard from him since.

_I hope he isn't avoiding me now._ The idea saddened her.

She paused to look around her when she was in her rose garden. Stopping by her red roses she looked around and realised she wasn't alone.

There was a figure seated on the white-painted bench by the roses, elbows on their knees, hands cupping their face, deep in thought.

Arthurine walked up to the person, "good evening, do you mind if I sit with you?"

The figure, not having heard her approach, blinked and looked up in surprise, "not at all, this is you're house after all." Said Jean, moving over slightly.

"Arthie~! Are you in here?!" Olivia sang, throwing the door open.

Francis looked up and smiled at the other England, he loved his England with all his heart but he admired Olivia's constantly perky attitude and good humour. The two of them had become fast friends and France hoped they would stay that way, whether Olivia put people in her cupcakes or not.

"She's not here Liv, she just left. Angleterra went out for a walk in the garden to take a break. And don't call her 'Arthie,' she despises that." Alfred had called her that once and Arthurine had nearly broken his nose, and if her beloved America couldn't get away with it her bubby other-self certainly wouldn't

Olivia pouted, "fine, be that way, I don't need her anyway, if a certain French cook who can actually _cook _will start dinner with me?" She linked her fingers behind her back and leaned forwards ask she asked her question, pale eyes glimmering.

Francis smiled, "with a request from a beautiful lady like yourself, how could I say no?"

"Yay!" Olivia squealed and raced out of the room. Francis was so nice like that, always willing to help and saying kind things, even when he was just teasing Arthurine.

Olivia sighed and shook her head, yup. Her blonde self didn't know how good she had it. And she was wasting her feelings on her America, Allen or Alfred or whatever. Some people never learnt.

Olivia smiled, well Arthurine might not learn from her mistakes but Olivia would certainly learn from her other self's mistakes. She wasn't going to give up on _her_ France. No matter what.

"Tell me. How are you liking my world?" Arthurine asked after a minute or so of not-awkward-but-not-quite-comfortable silence.

Jean shrugged, "aside from the countries I've met so far it seems exactly the same. But I do like your house more than Olivia's it's less…loud."

Arthurine snickered, amused, "well thank you very much," she teased. There were a few more seconds of silence then; "you know she's in love with you, right?" England didn't feel like she was betraying Olivia's trust or dobbing her in, it wasn't like her pink-haired self wasn't exactly subtle about her feelings for the red-eyed France.

Jean snorted, "Yeah, I know. It's not like she was subtle about it." He said, echoing Arthurine's thoughts.

"And how do you feel?" Arthurine asked curiously, "If you love her in return, you're doing a bloody good job of hiding it."

Jean dragged his long-fingered hands down through his hair and across his face, letting out a pent-up breath as he did so. "I don't… feel for Olivia…what she feels for me." He said finally.

England winced in sympathy for her pink-haired self, unrequited love sucked. "What _do_ you feel for her?" She asked softly, "is there any chance that all of Olivia's hopes and dreams might not be in vain? That her feelings might be returned, one day? Perhaps?"

Jean shut his ruby eyes for a long second, "'All of Olivia's hopes and dreams?' Wow. Low blow Arthurine, guilt trip me why don't you? No really, I insist."

England smiled apologetically and pulled in her flowing white skirt, "my apologies Jean, I didn't mean to make you feel guilty. But you are avoiding my question."

Jean winced; she was a lot more perceptive than Olivia. "I don't really know how to feel," he confessed, "don't get me wrong, I do _love_ Olivia, just not the way she loves me. She is my best friend and worst enemy. She is the light of my life and the darkness in the corners of my mind. But I never loved her the way she loves me. Until recently I hadn't felt romantic love since… a long time ago. And the woman I loved back then was a human, not a nation. After she died I forgot what it felt like to experience romantic love for a very long time."

Arthurine made a sour face, as though she had sucked on a lemon, "Joan of Arc?" She asked.

Jean glanced at her, "how did you know?"

England's frown deepened, "let's just say Francis and I had a similar experience with _his_ Joan of Arc, albeit on a much smaller scale, at least you two have _one_ thing in common." She said.

Jean, who knew a sensitive topic when he saw one, didn't push, Arthurine didn't either.

"As for whether I could return Olivia's feelings one day, even if I could, I'm not sure I would," he admitted, sighing again, "what with Jake threatening to bash my head in with a bloody baseball bat if I ever did."

"Who's Jake?" Arthurine asked, the name sounded familiar, she thought she'd heard Olivia mention it once or twice.

"Our America, he's crazy in love -emphasis on _crazy- _with Olivia but she only sees him as a little brother."  
_  
How ironic,_ thought Arthurine with a mental eye-roll, while wishing Alfred would see her as something other than an older sister.

"So that's it then?" She asked, "even if you loved Olivia, could make her happy and be happy yourself, you'd let America stand in your way?!"

Jean almost smiled, "you say that, but you've never met Jake. Olivia is the only person who can control him, and trust me, even if it would hurt her, he'd kill me if I took her away from him. Instantly. The only reasons he hasn't killed me yet is because it _would_ hurt Olivia and, although he has a strange way of showing it, he _does_ genuinely love her and _she_ cares for me. But that can change, the moment I show the slightest affection in return, my life is forfeit…messily." It was the most England had ever heard Jean say in one go, but he did seem to be rather open and talkative today.

"So you _would_ let him stand in your way." Arthurine summarized, she wasn't quite contemptuous, but she definitely didn't look impressed.

Jean actually did crack a smile this time, just a small one, which flitted over his handsome features so quickly Arthurine wasn't sure it had ever really been there.

"No," he said quietly, "I've decided I wouldn't, I _won't._ I said that I hadn't felt romantic love until recently. Well I do now. I'm in love with England and, if she wants me, I won't let Jake or anyone else stand in my way."

Now Arthurine was really confused, "ah Jean? What are you talking about? Yes, you said you'd started to feel romantic love recently, but you _just said_ you didn't feel that way about Olivia. And of _course _she'll accept you! This is the thing she wants most in the world!"

Jean smiled again, "when I said I didn't feel that way about Olivia I meant that, Arthurine. And no, I don't think this is what she wants at all."

Jean laid one hand over Arthurine's on the bench and cupped her face with his free hand.

"What are you-" Arthurine broke off as Jean's mouth brushed against hers for a split second in a chaste kiss.

Jean pulled back to look at her face, his eyes filled with more emotions than Arthurine could name.

"I didn't say I was in love with_ my _England," he whispered.

Arthurine's face went white with shock and dismay; her heart began to thud erratically.

Ducking back behind the corner, tears streaming from her pale eyes, hands clutching the material over her shattered heart, Olivia's heart did too.

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**Ouch. Poor Olivia. Nice timing Pinky! Anyway, R & R to tell me what you think and what you think should happen. I named this chapter 'Hydrangea,' because they symbolise 'thank you for understanding', but also 'frigidity' and 'heartlessness.' A good double-sided coin for Jean and Arthurine. See you all next time, hope you enjoyed!**


	7. Pink Larkspur

**Many thanks to MsNoOne for following and favoriting! And I thought no-one was reading this crap. R & R people, I want to know what you guys want to happen. Ok, I don't own, enjoy.**

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Chapter 7: Pink Larkspur

Yue lay on Ivan's couch and flicked idly through the channels on TV. She was waiting for Ivan to come and see her, as he did every day around lunchtime.

Yue wasn't 100 percent sure that Ivan would come today, not after the conversation they'd had yesterday. Ivan had been asking her more questions about Yao and the Japan from his world, Kiku, or whatever his name was.

He'd seemed extraordinarily fixated on the two of them ever since he'd learned about Yao's love for Kiku-a love she'd harboured since the Sino-Japanese War, hundreds of years and Ivan hadn't noticed. He now lived under the delusion that Yue knew something he didn't just because she was observant and he wasn't.

She'd asked him, yesterday, why he hadn't noticed Yao's blatantly obvious love for another man. She'd expected him to change the subject, and he had, talking for twenty five minutes about how exactly Yue's blood would splatter on the walls and why it would splatter that way, if her head was to be beaten in with a lead pipe.

Other people, Yao included, would probably have been creeped out by this. Yue was fascinated. She couldn't help but think about how much experience Ivan would need to have with bashing people's heads in with a pipe to have this kind of knowledge and again this intrigued rather than bothered her.

She was a bit of a weird one, to put it mildly, but as she had noted before, she was attracted to strength. More specifically, his strength.

Ivan apparently, was not, because while Yao was an incredibly strong country and woman she didn't even have the backbone to make it clear to Ivan she Was. Not. Interested. Let alone like him for who he was.

Yue didn't see Russia as some sort of psychopathic killer like he had been portrayed over the years. She just saw him as more honest than most. Every country was capable of doing hideous things; Ivan just didn't cover his up like everyone else did. Yao apparently didn't feel the same way.

Yue snorted, _she should hook up with Vadim. Spineless, both of them._ Okay, she was being unfair, but this was incredibly annoying for her, having to tell Ivan the same things over and over again because he was too stubborn to get the message. Yao. Was. Not. Interested. Part of her wished she'd just stayed with Yao, but hey, at lest she wasn't bored here with Ivan.

Speak of the Devil, the door opened and Ivan stepped in. With a mental sigh Yue switched off the TV and turned to face him. Ivan sat down opposite her with a 'pleasant' smile. "Good Morning Yue," he said cheerfully.

Yue sighed, "good 3pm in the afternoon to you too, moron." She said wryly. She leaned back on the couch and waited for the questions to start. Good God, Russia was so obsessed with China. _His_ China. Yue scowled, she was annoyed now and she didn't know why.

"How are you today?" Russia asked, as he always did.

"Bored." Yue replied without missing a beat, as she always did.

"Are you liking the Television?" Russia asked, he hadn't asked her that before but he always asked her similar questions. Did she like the room? The bed? The food? The weather? Small talk questions.

"It's alright." She said honestly, it didn't really do much for her one way or the other.

Ivan regarded her for a while, his head tilted to the side. Truthfully he didn't even want to talk about Yao, asking about Yao's relationship (or lack thereof as the case might be) just annoyed him. However if he didn't ask he had no reason for bothering Yue which meant that he would probably have to leave. And he didn't want to leave.

He just wanted to talk to her.

Yue was funny. Not funny in a ha-ha kind of way or funny as in 'weird' but funny in a dry, biting, sarcastic sort of way. And she was honest. Brutally. Most of the time anyway.

One of the things Ivan liked about Yao was how she always went out of her way to think about his feelings. Not many people considered how he felt when they were invading him and beating him up as children or calling him a monster behind his back. Yao did.

Yao always considered Ivan's feelings and always tried to be nice to him even though he apparently terrified her (he genuinely had not noticed).

Yue on the other hand was so honest it hurt. A lot. And while he loved Yao for her sweet heart he'd been finding Yue's honesty and straight-forwardness very refreshing of late. That was one of the things he liked about Yue, even more than her honesty. She was direct.

"Well, get on with it will you? You and I both know why you came in here and I'd rather get this over with than just sit here all day." Yue said, blunt as ever.

Ivan sighed and unconsciously made his choice.

"Tell me something about yourself?" He asked, "Anything. I'd like to know more about _you."_

Yue sat up straight. "Huh?" She asked stupidly. This was new.

"Well…" she said slowly, "I actually really like… sock puppets."

Ivan nodded, he hadn't known that.

Yue mentally facepalmed. Why the Hell had she said that? "Two Russia's," she muttered, "there are two Russia's in one Universe. It's messing with me." Ivan blinked, confused but didn't say anything. Yue sighed and ran a hand through her short black hair. Sometimes Ivan's sweet, smiling face was just too easy to talk to. That wasn't a good thing.

Kuro Honda, also known as Yue and Vadim's world's Japan, eyed the doorway of the house ahead warily. His plan was straight-forward, simple and incredibly primitive. He was going to hide beside the door and when Yue came out he was going to hit her on the head with his sword (in its sheath!), knock her out, shove her in the sack he had found and bring her back to their world. He'd drag her every step of the way if he had to.

All of their Asian family was incredibly worried about Yue so they'd sent Kuro to find her and bring her back. Okay, no that first part wasn't true. The Asian siblings all fought constantly (with the exception of North and South Korea who loved each other with an unrivalled passion) and didn't give a damn about Yue. They just wanted her back because she was the only person who could tell them if the last slice of pie really had belonged to Taiwan or if it really had been Vietnam's the whole time.

But _Kuro _was worried, so he was going to bring his older sister/stalkee/hopefully future wife back home. Whether she liked it or not. That was just the way Kuro did things. Plus, Yue would never go anywhere with him willingly.

He rubbed his shoulder; it still hurt from where he had tumbled through that stupid portal while looking for Yue. He blamed Olivia. He always blamed Olivia but this one probably _was _her fault.

Kuro adjusted his black had and moved stealthily to the door, maroon eyes flicking from side to side to make sure no-one was watching him.

He pressed his body to the side of the door. If Yue was the first person to open the door he had only a split second to knock her unconscious before she reacted. He was on unfamiliar territory and didn't want to cause a scene so he couldn't have her screaming. And if it came to a one-on-one fight she would probably whoop his ass. So why was she so scared of him? Kuro wondered briefly before shaking the thought off. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that if he didn't bring Yue back in the next 48 hours his other siblings were going to come after _him._ And there wasn't a person in the world Kuro hated enough to inflict _that_ upon.

The door opened. When Kuro looked up to look at the face of the person who had walked through, he accidentally looked directly into the midday sun, blinding him momentarily.

He blinked, eyes watering and peered at the person who had walked out the door. He couldn't really see the person but he knew Yue's figure when he saw it. He swung his (sheathed!) sword at the figure's head. Even ninety-nine percent blinded it was a perfect shot, if there was one thing Kuro was good at, it was hitting people on the head with swords.

The figure dropped without a sound, she never even saw him. Kuro grabbed China and stuffed her into the sack.

"Perfect, now to get the Hell out of this world." He muttered. Actually he had to go back to the abandoned warehouse he was staying at and grab his mobile phone first. He had left it there because he didn't want his siblings calling him while he was trying to abduct their oldest sister.

Normally he would've just turned the stupid thing off but his siblings had put a tracking device in the phone when he left and if he turned it off they would all come swarming in here trying to find him. So he had to go back first.

Kuro dumped the bag containing China on the floor and picked up his phone, checking it for messages. Twenty-four. All from Hong Kong, crazy obsessed stalker. Not that Kuro had room to complain about having a stalker. He was a lot of things but he wasn't a hypocrite, usually.

Suddenly the bag began to thrash. Kuro walked over to it and pulled it away, ready to give Yue his well-used 'come-with-me-or-I'll-_make_-you' speech when China looked up at him. He froze, maroon eyes widening.

Golden-amber eyes widened back.

"Well." Kuro murmured after a second, "I can't honestly say I was expecting this.

Yue sighed and placed her arms behind her head as Ivan left, saying he had paperwork that needed attending to. Well that had been a pleasant change. Instead of being asked the same 5 questions about what Yue had told her over and over again for the next three hours she had spent that time having a nice discussion with Ivan. And it was…well…_nice._

If there was one thing Yue_ didn't_ like about Vadim it was his total inability to hold a decent conversation. Despite his status as a non-talker Ivan proved to have no such problems. After Yue's awkward comment about sock puppets the two them had had a wonderful time.

They'd talked about everything from world affairs to new Russian and Chinese music to their favourite restaurants and foods to, yes, sock puppets. Yue smiled ever so slightly. It was a true smile, not something very common for her.

Ivan's presence, the sense danger she felt while around him all electrified her. They made her blood race, her heart pound and her skin tingle. She was incredibly attracted to that strength but just today, when she'd learned so much about him, she'd seen the man he was underneath. And Heaven help her she'd been attracted to the real him too.

Yue sighed, one of the very few traits she shared with Yao was that she was no fool, she knew it was only a matter of time before Olivia and her blonde self found the right spell to send them home and she would have to leave this world. Leave Ivan. And Heaven help her but she really, _really_ didn't want to.

Kuro stared wordlessly down at the China in front of him. Yao stared wordlessly up at the Japan in front of her. Kuro broke eye contact, cursing.

He ripped off his hat and ran a hand through his silky black tresses. He might have to call his siblings soon. It looked like he might be here a bit longer than he had anticipated.

Kuro had been in this dimension for quite some time now and he had not been idle during that time period. He had learned that there were personifications of countries in this world too. And that they bore striking resemblance to the countries he was familiar with. In looks anyway. He just hadn't expected the proof to hit him quite so brutally.

He was willing to bet copious amounts of money that the female in front of him was this dimension's version of his sister. She was staring at him with a stunned expression on her face, "you must be…" she whispered.

She broke off with a shake of her head. Then she winced, Yao felt like, well, like she'd been hit around the head with a sheathed metal stick.

Kuro shook his own head. "I don't believe this," he muttered. "I can't believe I kidnapped the _wrong China."_

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**Ok, sorry I'm a bit late. I named this chapter 'Pink Larkspur' because it means 'fickleness' which is pretty much how all the countries are beginning to feel around each other now. R & R people and tell me what you think. Oh and the America's and Japan's are going to start having bigger roles now. Hope you guys enjoyed.**


	8. Daffodil

**Hi guys I updated, just thought you all should know, just in case someone out there actually cares. Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I bother with this one at all. R & R people and maybe I'll change my mind about this fic.**

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Chapter 8: Daffodil

Olivia stumbled back the way she came, tears streaming down her face. She was familiar with the term 'heartbreak' and knew better than anyone else that it could be a physical symptom, a pain unlike any other in the chest.

But this was worse, in the hundreds, _thousands, _of years she had loved Jean she had never experienced this sort of pain to this magnitude.

And Arthurine…

Olivia sniffed, this wasn't Arthurine's fault, she had stuck up for Olivia, been on her side even, she'd looked shocked, even upset when Jean had kissed her and she hadn't kissed him back.

Truly Arthurine wasn't at fault here, she hadn't even done anything that might make Jean fall in love with her, she'd treated him exactly the same way she treated Olivia. And he'd fallen in love with her anyway. In a few short months she'd managed what Olivia hadn't in thousands of years.

Yeah, Arthurine was pretty blameless, so why did Olivia feel like she'd had a knife stabbed in her back as well as her heart?

Blinded by tears Olivia couldn't see where she was going very well and smacked into someone. She tumbled backwards and would have fallen if the person she hit hadn't caught her.

"Hey careful, you're gonna hurt yourself," he figure said, it was a male with an American accent. Not Francis then.

Olivia wiped her pale eyes and looked up at the male. Blue eyes behind slender lenses stared back at her in an innocent face with honey blond hair that had a huge cowlick sticking up at the front.

Aside from the colouring and innocent expression this person could have been her Jake. That meant he was…

Actually Olivia honest-to-God had no idea what his human name was and, though far be it from her to be rude, didn't really care what it was right now.

She sniffed and wiped her streaming eyes again. Man, the pain in her chest just didn't let up.

"Oh hi, you must be this America," She said, "you're probably looking for your England. Well she's back there," Olivia gestured, then her voice cracked, "but I wouldn't go back there right now. She's _busy."_ She burst into tears again.

Arthurine could actually have slapped Jean across the face and bolted, she could be anywhere right now if she had.

But Olivia had no idea what she had and had not done; she hadn't exactly stayed to watch.

So to the best of her knowledge Arthurine was still back on the garden bench. With_ Olivia's _France. And Arthurine's America really didn't need to know that.

"Hey," America caught her arms, "what's wrong, why are you crying?" America might not be the world's most sensitive person but he wasn't blind, even he could see the tears flowing down Olivia's cheeks.

"No-nothing, I'm not crying," Olivia lied, terribly, wiping her cheeks for a third time.

Her damn eyes just wouldn't stop filling. Very few things in this world, or her own could truly upset Olivia Kirkland.

Unfortunately Jean Bonnefoy was one of them.

"Hey, c'mon, even I can tell that's not true." America guided Olivia over to the nearby stone ledge and sat down with her.

He actually_ had_ come here looking for his England, he needed her signature on a few papers but this was more important. If there was one thing Alfred. F. Jones couldn't stand; it was seeing a woman cry. Especially if that woman was damn-near identical to the most important woman in his life.

"Hey, Ophelia, right? Tell me what's wrong, I'm a hero, I'm not sure if I'll be able help but I'll do my best!" Said Alfred with a contagious smile that Olivia tried to return.

"Thank you but no thank you. I don't think there's anything you can do to help. And I'm Olivia actually, what was you're name again?" The pinkette replied. This America was certainly very different to hers. Jake would have taken one look at her face, grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken her until she confessed what had made her cry. Then he would have run off and beat the holy Hell out of Arthurine and Jean, whether they were blameless or not. She appreciated this America's thoughtfulness.

America looked awkward, "oh, I'm Alfred, sorry Olivia, I'm terrible with names!" He gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched the back of his head. "And you won't know if I can help unless you tell me!"

Olivia hesitated, the words 'I don't want to talk about it,' trembling on her lips.

But the truth was, she_ did_ want to talk about it. She wanted someone to understand the pain that was still tearing through her as thousands of years of unrequited love and admiration were rejected as though they were nothing.

This wasn't exactly something she could take to Jean or Arthurine, she didn't want to talk over the phone so Yue was out and there was no way she was telling Francis.

He was in love with Arthurine just as surely as Olivia was in love with Jean and it would greatly upset him at the very least.

So this kind stranger was pretty much her only option, but still Olivia hesitated.

As she had noticed before, her America would have already beaten the living daylights out of someone by now, and while that meant_ this_ America was less likely to, Olivia was incredibly wary of telling _any_ America anything.  
_  
But wait, if Jake is in love with me_ (Olivia wasn't stupid, she knew). _And I'm in love with J…my France,_ oh God, it hurt to even think his name,_ and Francis is in love with Arthurine, that means Arthurine is in love with this guy, which means he has no romantic feelings for her! So I'm completely safe!  
_  
She almost smiled, pleased with her logic, "well," she grew gloomy again, "you remember my France? The guy I came here with?"

Alfred nodded, he seemed to be hanging off her every word.

"Well I like him, like as _like_,_ like_ in as in love, love as in have been in love with ever since I first laid eyes on him when I was a child.

Alfred whistled, "wow, that was a really long time ago."

Olivia glared, Alfred, realising his mistake, backpedalled frantically, "not that you're old or anything! No, you're not old! And even if you were old you don't look old! I mean, you're still young and pretty so…" He trailed off, "I'll shut up now."

Olivia giggled, _oh wow, is this what Arthurine has to live with all the time? No wonder she's always grouchy.  
_  
She decided to let the boy be, "it's alright Alfred, yes, I've loved him for a very, very long time. But he," her hands shook, she folded them in her lap. "I've known that whole time that he never loved me back but I always lived in hope that he would. Now I don't have that hope anymore." Her voice began to crack again as her tears flowed once more. "He loves someone else."

Alfred winced and scrunched up his nose, "wow. Tough luck. That _sucks."_ His voice held sympathy and concern, even pity. But there was no real empathy, how could there be? _He _had never been in love with someone who didn't love him back.

He rubbed Olivia's shoulder, "wow, you're in an even worse situation than Blondie, Arthurine, I should say. She's in love with some guy too but at least he's not in love with someone else."

Olivia looked at him through her tears incredulously, "_you_ don't know who she's in love with?"

"Nope," he shook his head, "wait, you _do?! _Who is it?_"_

Olivia laughed, but it wasn't her usual bubby giggle, it was harsh and humourless, "Alfred, if you don't know by now then it's not my place to tell you."

Just because Arthurine had indirectly ruined Olivia's life didn't mean the pinkette was going to return the favour. It wasn't Arthurine's fault after all.

"Ok, if you say so. But do you know who your France is in love with?" Alfred asked.

Olivia's throat felt tight. "Yeah. I do: Arthurine."

Alfred looked stunned, however he quickly recovered and, to Olivia's amazement, "he laughed. "What? No! Why would he fall in love with blondie? He's only known her for a couple of months! And it's _blondie!"_

Olivia nodded, crying freely now, "and he's known me for thousands of years and yet he still likes her better than me. He kissed her you know, just before, in the rose garden."

"WHAT?!" Alfred leapt up, hands balling into fists, "nobody kisses blondie and gets away with it!"

He seemed to struggle with himself for a minute then, with a great deal of effort, he sat back down and ran a hand through his hair, "geez, I sound like Scotland," he muttered, then immediately turned his attention back to Olivia.

"There there!" He patted her shoulder enthusiastically, putting his arm around her "so he has a little crush on blondie? So what!? At the end, he'll go back to your world with you and she'll stay here with me. Problem solved!"  
_  
But how much will that change things? _Olivia wondered. 

Pulling away from Arthurine, Jean searched her face for a moment, then sighed, "Forgive me, I shouldn't have done that." He said.

Arthurine was at a loss for what to say, _I don't believe this,_ she thought.

Was Jean for real? If he was, fate certainly had a sick sense of humour_. Oh Olivia's going to be _devastated _when she finds out.  
_  
She stood"I'm sorry Jean, but I imagine by now you know the feeling of not returning someone's feelings far better than I do."

She grasped her skirt in her hands, fingers twisting the material nervously, pulling it up over her feet so she wouldn't trip on it. "Please excuse me; I think I need some time alone."

Arthurine bolted.

Jean leaned back on the bench and sighed, well he'd royally screwed that up, and he felt ridiculously guilty.  
He knew he couldn't be blamed for not returning Olivia's feelings; it wasn't like he'd _chosen_ not to, but for some reason he still felt completely at fault, he sighed again, "sorry Liv." 

Arthurine ran until she was at the apple fields at the end of her huge backyard away from her rose bushes and everything around them.

She stood, panting, though she was not tired, hands trembling on her skirt. She couldn't have been there for more than a few seconds when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Angleterra!"

She turned, Francis jogged up to her.

Out of the three people she was staying with he was probably the one she'd_ least_ hate to see right now but she scowled at him anyway, telling him that if he'd come here to annoy her, now was not a good time.

"What Frog?" She asked, not rudely, but a long way from being civil too.

If France noticed, he gave no sign of it, "I've been looking for you for a while now, Alfred is here and he's looking for you too."

Arthurine growled under her breath, she _so_ didn't need this right now. "Oh get lost you bloody Frog!" She snapped, "If America's looking for me he can come find me himself! You don't need to run around like everyone's little lapdog!" England knew she was way out of control but she just couldn't stop herself. "I have no idea why your acting so nice but we both know it's just that, an act. So stop this bloody bullshit this instant and just _bugger off!" _Her last two words were a shout. Arthurine ran off again as the look in France's eyes changed from shock to hurt.

This time Arthurine jumped her back fence and made it into the woods beside her house. Here she was alone, only Scotland knew how to find her here; he'd done it enough times.

France and the others would just get hopelessly lost if they came looking for her, not that they would after that. 

England cringed guiltily and dropped to her knees, heedless of her white skirt and tucked her legs under her.  
She didn't have any reason to be upset. Olivia did, or would once she found out what happened and Arthurine did intend to come clean.

Jean did as Arthurine rejected him in almost the exact same way he'd been rejecting Olivia her whole life (and it really did hurt).

And Francis definitely did after the way she'd torn into him just because he'd tried to make her life a little easier by being nice to her.

Arthurine was just stressed and shocked and dismayed and now thoroughly appalled by her behaviour. But that didn't excuse her actions.  
_  
I'll make things right later,_ she drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms around them. "Sorry Francis."

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**Ok guys, hope ****_someone_**** enjoyed. I named this chapter 'Daffodil' because it means 'Respect, regard, unrequited love, you're the only one & the sun is always shining when I'm with you.' Which I thought was pretty perfect for Olivia and Jean. Anyway, I'm off to write Prince and Prince(ss) because apparently that's far more interesting. ****_Please_**** R & R guys! Later!**


	9. Lavender Heather

**Hi guys, sorry I'm so late, I had a really busy week, what with school starting again and all, then I went to take a nap for like, 10mins and woke up 9 hours later. And my USB broke and ugh… life happened…  
Many, many thanks to elizabeta H. Austria for following and your four (four!) reviews, your sympathy touched my heart. This chapter is dedicated to you!  
Much thanks must also go to The Damned Goddess for following and favoriting and to Mr or Ms Tanuki for following. You guys rock!  
Thanks also go to Jridn for reviewing. In answer to your question about how I get the time to write all of these; you know that wonderful, lovely thing called sleep? …Yeah, I don't do that. Except for just recently! Thank you, I'm glad you liked the fic btw.  
Anyway, I'm here now, so enjoy, I don't own.**

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Chapter 9: Lavender Heather 

Kiku Honda, also known as Japan, was busy with paperwork when Russia, of all people, burst through the door of his study.

Japan jumped about three feet in the air and instinctively reached for his katana, thinking he was being invaded.

Then he realized Russia was unarmed and alone and relaxed cautiously, "Good evening Russia-san, what bring you here?" He asked politely, slowly replacing the katana back on its stand. Then Russia said three words that made Japan's blood run cold.

"China's been attacked."

"And that is how you make steamed rice balls-aru," Yao said, placing them on a tray in front of Kuro's riveted eyes.

Maroon orbs widened, "I had no idea it was that simple!"

China gave the 'other' Japan a pitying look, "are you Japan or aren't you? Aiya! How did you not know how to make steamed rice balls?"

Kuro crouched until he was eye-level with their western-style table, he watched Yao set down the rice balls and then watched the steam rise from them, mesmerised, "amazing."

"Not really," Yao sat down at the table and bit into a rice ball, "aren't you going to eat?" She asked after she had chewed and swallowed.

Kuro immediately shook his head, "no thank you. I'm not hungry."  
_  
You're never hungry,_ thought Yao, yup, this guy was definitely Kiku's opposite.

Yao smiled slightly as she thought about her little glutton; she hoped he wasn't worried about her.

She knew that was unlikely, unlike Ivan, Kiku trusted that she could take care of herself. Not to mention the little introvert probably didn't know she was missing. A little slow on the uptake her Kiku…

"What are you smiling about?" Asked Kuro, his voice was demanding but not rude.

Yao smiled at him too, "oh nothing, I was just wondering where things were going to go from here."

Kuro shrugged, they had moved from the abandoned warehouse the day Yao had been kidnapped, that had been about a week ago.

The two-bedroom apartment they had moved into was small but it had enough space for the two of them and all the electrical and plumbing appliances needed to sustain them while Kuro figured out what he what he wanted to do next.

Kidnapping a personification of China from China was one thing, but kidnapping a personification of China (even if it was the wrong personification) from Russia might send a message that Kuro didn't want sent and might end with heat accidentally coming down on Kiku.

He didn't want to unintentionally start a war between this world's Japan and Russia over _his_ China. If Ivan and Kiku started fighting then Kuro and Vadim would inevitably end up fighting also. The personifications of the countries might be completely different, but the events that played out were exactly the same, the Allies had still won WWII and Russia was still one scary ass motherfucker in Kuro's opinion. So that counted out kidnapping Yue the same way he had kidnapped Yao. This led him to his next biggest problem…

He'd considered just putting Yao back where he found her but she had been incredibly useful to him so far. It was only because of her that he had any idea of where his older sister actually was.

Plus she had taught him how to make rice balls, something that he –shamefully- hadn't known how to do previously, though he probably could have figured it out if he tried.

He had been in contact with his younger siblings, of course, and had been incredibly irritated when he found out that the last slice of pie actually _was _Vietnam's all along, they didn't need Yue after all.

Of course he was going to bring her back anyway, he worried about her when he wasn't around to watch over her, a trait he found Yao exhibited for Kiku as well. That being said the time he had spent with Yao had been quite nice. It was almost like having a real older sister. Still, he needed to get to work; he couldn't be gone from his own country for too long.

He knew Yue wouldn't care but he was honestly surprised Vadim, Olivia and Jean weren't flipping out.

Then again, he wasn't sure how much the last two cared about their countries either.

Well, it wasn't so much that they didn't care, they all cared of course, they _were_ their countries after all. It was just their level of work ethic and responsibility he wondered about.

"When I figure it out, you'll be the first to know," he muttered. Yao nodded, she was sure it wasn't healthy to accept her own kidnapping so calmly but things really could be worse.

She cupped her chin in her hand, she had been enjoying her time here with Kuro too, her time with Yue hadn't been bad and Heaven help her but she really had grown fond of Vadim, but Kuro was so like Kiku yet so completely different.

It was like having her little brother back.

When Russia had calmed down a little and fully explained the situation to him Kiku's heart started to beat again.

When Russia had uttered the phrase 'China's been attacked," Japan had automatically assumed that he meant that China had been invaded. But no, Russia had meant exactly what he said; China, the person, Yao, had been attacked. Attacked, knocked unconscious and abducted to be more specific.

Or at least that was what they had managed to make out from what Russia was now referring to as the 'Crime Scene.'

_Give me a heart attack why don't you?_ He asked Russia mentally, his thoughts more cryptic and snarky then they usually were, but hey-he'd just had a pretty big scare.

"I see," Kiku took a sip from his cup of green tea, "thank you for telling me this. I will look into it immediately."

Russia's expression became dismayed, "that's all you have to say? Don't you care?!"  
_  
Of course I care, I just don't feel the need to yell it in someone else's face,_ Kiku thought, but was to polite to say, though he wasn't going to stop being a snarky asshole until his heart rate was back to normal, and that could take a while. _Damn you high blood pressure!_

Russia set down his own cup of tea and rose, "well, thank you for the tea, Mr. Japan, but I really should be going. Both Yue and Vadim are staying at my place now, they're devastated and they need watching." Throwing his scarf back over his shoulder Russia headed for the door.

"Who are Yue and Vadim?" Japan asked, they would have to know China fairly well to be 'devastated' by her loss and yet he didn't recognise their names.

Strange, he thought he knew everyone associated with Russia who was fond of China.

"They're the other dimension versions of Yao and me," Russia told him, hand on the doorknob, "so naturally they're very upset. Vadim was even the one who noticed Yao was missing and checked the security cameras. We saw her get hit but we couldn't see her attacker."

Russia's hand tightened on the doorknob and his eyes blazed with fury, though he didn't let Japan see it. When he found out who had taken Yao…

But Kiku was still miles behind him, "the other dimension versions of China-san and yourself?"

He shook his dark head, "I'm sorry Russia-san but I don't understand."

Ivan turned back to him, expression carefully innocent, "didn't China tell you? Another world's counterpart of Miss England opened a portal between her world and ours and sent herself, and another version of France, myself and China here. It turns out that another world is running parallel to ours and the two can be accessed by the other side with enough effort. They've been staying with us for quite some time now." He opened the door, "I thought Yao would have at least told you, after all, you're her _favourite."_ The door shut behind him.

Kiku scowled at the door, "that was helpful, and not strange at all," he muttered to himself, taking another sip of tea, his pulse was still racing.

He set the cup down and rose from his work desk, he strapped the katana he had almost used on Russia to his hip and picked up his phone. He had to make a few calls, then when he knew where China was he was going to go find her and bring her back home.

Unlike Russia, Japan had confidence that China was okay, he knew she knew how to defend herself and was an intelligent woman-something that Ivan seemed to constantly overlook.

But after all these years she was still his big sister, and even though he may not act protective, usually, if someone had hurt his nee-san in any way God have mercy on them because Kiku certainly wouldn't.

"Aiya! I win again," Yao said, throwing down her cards and smiling, Kuro growled in annoyance and shoved the chocolates they were betting across the table to her. Now Yao was actually enjoying herself, she never beat Kiku at cards and even Ivan kicked her ass nine times out of ten, she had no idea why.

"You want to stop?" she asked, stacking the chocolates neatly by her elbow so she wouldn't knock over the huge pile.

Kuro glanced at the three chocolates he still had left and shook his head, "never! I will beat you this time!"

Yao smiled; if Kiku had ever gotten himself into this situation he would have called it quits by now. Much smarter, but not as fun.

Just then they both heard a knock on the door, they both glanced at it, "I'll get it," Kuro murmured, he went to rise from his chair and then stopped and shot Yao a suspicious look. He decided to take his cards with him.

"Just a second!" He called as he walked swiftly over to the door, Yao pouted, he didn't trust her.

Not that she'd have taken any chances if _she_ were losing that badly but still…

She couldn't see the person at the door past Kuro, which meant the person he was now speaking to in a lowered voice, was as small or smaller than he was.  
_  
A child maybe?_ She teased mentally, even though he couldn't hear her thoughts.

"Sure, she's right here," she heard Kuro say in a mockingly-sweet, overly polite voice, in Japanese, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to the dining table where Yao sat.

Her brow creased, had someone come looking for her? She set her cards down and rose, worried.

Just then Kuro came back, his brown-eyed, white-wearing counterpart by his side.

"Kiku!" Yao ran around the table and hugged her Japan, he didn't return the gesture but nor did he pull away.

As China let him go Japan half hugged himself, placing his hands on the opposite elbow and tapping his right pointer finger thoughtfully.

"So my sources were true," he murmured, "you really had holed up in here with another man, how very…thoughtless of you, China-san. You had a great many people worried for your safety."

Yao winced, _China-san?_ Japan wasn't usually that formal with people he was close to, not when he was in a good mood with them anyway. She stared into her 'brother's' flat, emotionless eyes.

_Why do I get the feeling I'm_ really_ in for it now?_

* * *

**I can't believe I'm a full day late. I'm so embarrassed, don't look at me! I'll ****_never _****do it again, I swear! R & R people and let me know what you think. What parings do you guys want to win?  
P.S: I named this chapter 'Lavender Heather' because it means 'admiration & solitude.'**


	10. Daisy

**Okay, thank you as always to my lovely reviewers.**

**myviolettears; yes, you already know my view on sleep.**

**To elizabeta H. Austria, yeah, I know, nothing happened last chapter but hey, the plot had to go ****_somewhere._**

**And lastly to the Prussia-awesome DeathbladeMeister who added this story and Prince and Prince(ss) to her Best of the Best-Hetalia Style community. I truly am not worthy! *grovels on floor***  
**And the 2ps might snap and go properly psycho, or some of them might, but they'll have some semblance of a reason, they wont just pull insanity out of thin air.**

**Olivia is currently the most likely candidate for proper insanity.**

**Hey, did you guys know Prince and Prince(ss) has more reviews, follows, favorites AND views than this story with half the chapters? I'm not sure if I should be happy or upset about that…**

**Anyway, thanks also go to the previously mentioned DeathbladeMeister and lazyday33 for following and favoriting.**

**Seriously people, tell me what parings you want to happen!**

**Aaand… enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Daisy

"Okay!" America patted Olivia's shoulder again, "why don't you go inside and have a hamburger or something? I'll find Blondie and we can get this mess straightened out!"

"Okay," Olivia said quietly, she didn't feel like eating and as reluctant as she was to let Alfred try and fix her problems she really did just want to go inside and curl up into a little ball.

She got up and walked towards the house, Alfred watched her go and then turned to look at the backyard, his mouth forming a hard line. He had to find his England and get this mess fixed, ASAP. He walked off, determined.

He completely forgot about the work forms in his back pocket.

When he reached the gardens he saw a young man sitting on one of the benches, deep in thought. His elbows were on his knees and his dirty-blond head hung between his shoulders. America had only seen this guy once but he knew he was the 'other France.'

Olivia's France.

"Hey, John?" That was the name Olivia had given him, right?

Jean's head jerked up, "yes? Oh, it's you. Hello again Mr. America." His voice was flat and toneless and America couldn't read his expression. England or France might be able to but America couldn't. Or at least he chose not to.

"Do you know where Arthurine is?" America asked, if anyone would know, it would be this guy, he was the last one to see her.

Jean shook his head, "she ran off that way," he pointed to the apple trees, "but I don't know where she went after that." He went back to brooding.

"Thanks," Alfred went to walk past him, but stopped, "and dude, kissing _my_ England is one thing. But did you have to do it while _your_ England was watching, how low can you get?" He walked off, Olivia had said neither Jean nor Arthurine had known she was there but Alfred didn't buy that. He didn't believe in that sort of coincidence.

Since he walked off he didn't see Jean's face go white, "Olivia saw?" He winced as guilt stabbed at him again.

"Sorry Liv."

"Arthurine? England? Baby, are you out here?" America called. He called all the girls he knew 'babe,' but England was the only one he called 'baby,' she was special to him and he needed to find her.

After searching every inch of the gardens Alfred concluded she wasn't there. Maybe she had passed him somewhere and gone back into the house? He hoped so, otherwise she was probably in the forest that surrounded her house, he'd never find her there and he'd get hopelessly lost trying.  
_  
Wait a minute, where the heck is France?_ He wondered, he hadn't seen him either.  
_  
Maybe he found her first and they went back to the house together?_ He hoped so.

Shrugging, America turned and walked back to his ex-caretaker's house, figuring he might as well go see what he could do for Olivia. If Arthurine was still out here it was out of his hands, he wasn't Scotland and he didn't know those woods, if she was in there, he wouldn't find her.

Because she obviously didn't want to be found.

England sat with her legs drawn up to her body for a while, knees digging into her eye sockets as she rested her head on them. Then the phone in her pocket vibrated with a message.

She pulled it out and winced, it was from France. Her France.

His message was the epitome of evasiveness;  
**England,** (no human name or intimate nickname)  
**If it matters to you at all, I've gone out for a while. I'll see you when I see you.  
France.**

And that was it. No teasing, no hugs and kisses. Even when they were fighting with swords and had to send messages by horse he always told her he loved her. Except for _then; _their fight over Joan of Arc.  
_  
Jeanne d'Arc._ Arthurine thought the other's name with a hint of spitefulness and resentment, while she didn't blame Joan for the biggest argument between her and Francis, she was still resentful towards the other woman for being the cause. But that was different. Francis had been devastated by what he considered an act of pure betrayal on England's part. Never mind that they had been in the middle of a war, this was taking it too far.

After the things he'd said to her, Arthurine was fully justified in being furious with France in return. If there were some things that crossed the line, some things you just _did not do,_ then it stood to reason that there were some things you just _did not say,_ either. But she'd done them, though her intentions had been pure. But he'd said them, though his thoughts had been clouded by grief and loss.

It still hurt though.

But there was no Joan this time. And neither France the Country nor Francis the man had done anything to her. This one was all on Arthurine.

She'd fucked up.  
_  
There are just some things you don't _say…

Like hurled accusations against your best friend for no other reason than he was a decent person and you were a bitch.

_There are just some things you don't _do…

Like kissing said best friend's other self after the two of you had just finished a conversation in how _your _other self was madly in love with him.

Okay sure, so that part hadn't exactly been her fault, she hadn't initiated the kiss, hadn't wanted it, and would take it back if she could. But she hadn't pulled away either. She had just been so shocked…

Jean had kissed her, _Jean. _It was as unreal as Russia suddenly running up and confessing his love for America. _Jean_ had ruined her good mood and _Jean_ had been the one who had upset her.

And she'd taken it out on _Francis._  
_  
So fix it you idiot._ England shook off her breakdown and pressed the call button on her phone. It wasn't much, but a phone call was a start, right?  
_  
'You call cannot be connected right now, please check the number and try again.'_ The automated voice told her mechanically. England hissed and tried again, she got the same results. She checked her phone, it wasn't her reception.

**'_I'm sorry,'_ **she texted to France, before pocketing her phone and standing, she had to get this mess straightened out.  
_  
He's probably halfway to Paris by now. And if he's got any sense he's taken Jean or Olivia with him._

England wasn't sure which one would be worse. She really, _really_ didn't want to be left with Jean, after what happened but if she was left with her other self, the guilt would eat her alive, even after she apologised and admitted her part in this little fiasco.  
_  
Well after what I said to France, I deserve it. _England was forced to acknowledge that she was being a little unfair to Jean, it wasn't his fault, he couldn't control who he fell for.  
_  
But he could've bloody well kept it to himself!_ An irritated voice in her mind said.  
_  
Well you could've kept your bitchy rants to yourself, but you didn't, did you?!_ Another equally snappy voice replied. That shut the first one up. Arthurine sighed and ran a hand through her short blonde hair, _great, now I'm going insane. Just what I needed._

She ran a hand through her short hair again, then stopped and did it more slowly. She'd always had short hair, all throughout her childhood (except for that one time when she had tried to grow it out and France had cut it again).

All throughout her youth and her infamous pirate days she'd kept her hair boyishly short, ignoring the orders from her boss, the whispers from her people during the years when girls just did not wear their hair like that, ignoring the giggles from the other Countries.

All because she believed and took confidence from something France had said when he cut her hair.  
_  
Boring hair looks best on you!_

No. Not that. Something he'd said the next day when he'd caught her sulking over it.  
_  
You're prettier when you're just being yourself._

England had never tried to grow her hair out again.

However, during WWII her hair had grown long anyway, she didn't have time to cut it, so she'd started wearing it up in two pigtails, first short, then much longer.

After the war when she would have cut her hair again, she'd left it long because America had mentioned that _he_ thought she looked good with long hair, and that he liked girls with long hair.

Heaven help her but England would try to be anyone he wanted.

Unfortunately her hair was as hard to manage as it had always been and Arthurine, not used to spending hours working on her hair to make it straight, hated it. But if Alfred liked it that was how she was going to keep it.

It was Francis who had convinced her to cut her hair again. Arthurine had never been happier to listen to the 'stupid frog.'

And then America had come up to her and told her that he had been wrong before, she did look better with short hair.

She owed Francis more than just her hairstyle; she owed him the courage she had to be herself.

And she'd pretty much kicked his good deeds and kind words back in his face. All because of a few words, all because she couldn't control herself for a _few damn minutes!_

She rubbed her face, _come on, it's not that big a deal,_ she tried to console herself. But it really was.

Because it wasn't the words that were the problem; it was the intent behind them.

England heard a sound behind her, from further back in the woods. She whipped around, there were wild animals in this forest, of course, but they rarely came this close to her house. And it didn't sound like any of her magical friends, though she could really use their company right now.

"Who's there? What are you doing on my property? Show yourself!"

A figure stepped out from the shadows, England's first, wild thought was that it was America, but she quickly saw it wasn't.

Well at least not _her _America.

He was a tall male, muscled, but not freakishly so, holding a baseball bat with _nails_ stuck into it.

He was wearing clothes identical to Alfred's except his jeans were ripped. His skin was a mid-brown, his hair, styled exactly the same as Alfred's, a shade lighter than his skin. The eyes that peeked out from behind a low-riding pair of sunglasses were a bright crimson, much lighter and brighter than Jean's, Yue's or Kuro's. There was a lit cigarette dangling from between his lips.

Arthurine set her hands on her hips; this just kept getting better and better!

"Jake Jones, America, I presume?" She asked, _oh why me?  
_  
"Hn, you know me? How 'bout that huh?" He spat the cigarette onto the ground, making Arthurine glare. This was her forest damn it!

"Pleasure, I'm England, Arthurine Kirkland." She said, she didn't give her human name out often, it was a pretty personal thing for one country to tell another, but he _was_ a version of America and she did know _his _name so fair was fair…

He glared, "My Olivia is England!" He snapped, walking towards her.

Arthurine held her ground, "not here she isn't. This is my world. I am."

Jake lifted a dark brow, "really? You're the England of this world? Well then maybe you can answer my question."

Suddenly he grabbed Arthurine and slammed her back against a large tree trunk, hands going around her throat.

"Where. Is. Olivia?!"

Olivia scrubbed at her silver dagger with a large handful of her pink skirt; this dagger had been given to her a long time ago by her loving older brother Scotland and was kind of like her security blanket. She always kept it hidden in her skirts. Cleaning it just made her feel better. Right now she was scrubbing it for all she was worth.

Olivia yipped in pain as her hand slipped and the knife sliced across her palm, leaving a weeping line of blood. It wasn't a very bad wound but she had a very low pain tolerance. Regardless, she ignored the injury and continued to clean her knife, smearing it and her skirt with her own blood.

A hand grabbed hers, "you idiot, you're going to really hurt yourself one day!" The person towed her into the kitchen and turned on the tap, sticking Olivia's bleeding hand under the water.

Olivia let out a whimper that had very little to do with the cold water hitting her wound.

"Jean?"

* * *

**Aaand cut!**

**Hope this chapter was a little more eventful. All the players are here now! We can get started! (You mean we haven't started?!)**

**I named this chapter 'daisy' because it means 'innocence, loyal love, I'll never tell and purity.' Olivia, Francis, Jean and Arthurine.**

**Seriously guys, tell me what pairings YOU want to win. This is not a drill people!**

**R & R, hope you enjoyed.**

**See ya!**


	11. Ambrosia

**Hi everyone, I'm back! What? No-one cares? Ok…**

**I was late because I stayed over a friend's house last night after we went to our grade 2 graduation, IT'S OVER! IT'S FINALLY OVER! **

**Many thanks to myviolettears, elizabeta H. Austria and ZanyAnimeGirl for reviewing and ZanyAnimeGirl for following!**

**myviolettears, yes I did twin, what are you going to do about it J**

**elizabeta H. Austria, don't worry, you'll find out what happens… next chapter.**

**To ZanyAnimeGirl, glad you liked it!**

**Here's chapter 11 guys, R & R & enjoy. I own nothing. **

* * *

Chapter 11: Ambrosia

Yue Chung, better known as the 'Other China' cupped her cheek with her hand as she gazed at Vadim and Ivan talking in low voices to one another. They were probably discussing the fact that Yue's other self, Yao Wang, the China of this world, had been missing for over a week now. The other problem was that this world's Japan, who had started looking for her, and apparently found her, was no longer answering his phone.

_Where is she?_ Yue wondered, staring at the two lookalikes who had apparently not felt the need to include her in this conversation. No, it wasn't like she was the _alternate self_ of the woman they were looking for or anyone important like that!

Yue bit the thumbnail of her other hand, thinking. She was sure Yao was okay, her other self was very responsible and mature, and she could take care of herself.

Yue had her own problems to think about. She didn't mean to sound selfish but Vadim and Ivan were really starting to freak her out. Ivan especially was really starting to make her shiver when he walked past.

Yue knew her tastes were a little…unorthodox but she didn't want anyone who knew her to be confused; incredibly strong and a little bloodthirsty was sexy.

Incredibly strong and incredibly bloodthirsty was scary as shit. Ivan's current attitude was serious overkill, pardon the pun. Yue had gone up to him the other day to ask who he thought had taken Yao and was quite honestly surprised she hadn't gotten a lesson on how a metal pipe could go through her head. Or actually gotten a metal pipe through the head.

Yue brushed her sleeves with her fingertips, feeling the slender shape of the acupuncture needles she had hidden up her sleeve; she had never considered even _considering_ using them here. Now she was considering getting rid of them. She was so tense and the atmosphere was so thick that if anyone startled her she just might…

A hand fell on her shoulder. Yue whipped around, yanking a large needle from her sleeve with the ease of long practice, arm flashing forwards to stab whatever moron had been dumb enough to alarm her…

A large, pale hand caught hers, Vadim's other hand covered their intertwined ones, prying the needle from Yue's fingers.

Yue mentally swore, this was exactly what she had been worried about, someone startling her and her overreacting. She could've seriously hurt Vadim.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Ivan who was now standing alone, talking on the phone and mentally cursed again. Vadim had been able to leave Ivan and come around behind her without her seeing. And she'd been staring at them.

"Calm down Osa," Vadim said, handing the needle back to her and allowing her to slip it into her sleeve.

'Osa' or 'wasp' in English, was his nickname for her. She stung apparently, probably had something to do with the previously mentioned needles.

"I…um…sorry Vadim." Said Yue, giving up on making up an excuse.

Vadim smiled understandingly. "Everyone's a bit tense now. We're all so worried about Yao that we forget to worry about ourselves." He said wisely.

He took her elbow gently and tugged her towards the gardens, "take a walk with me?" Puzzled, he usually didn't go anywhere near her if he could help it, Yue followed.

As they picked their way through Ivan's large garden Vadim released her elbow and took her hand, Yue glanced up at him, surprised.

"I've been thinking Yue…" Began Vadim uncertainly.

The Chinese woman snorted, "Not too hard I hope, you might hurt yourself." She replied audaciously, Vadim just rolled his blue eyes, long since used to Yue's snide remarks.

"I've been thinking Yue," he repeated, "well…Ivan has been really, tense lately-naturally, it was his China who got abducted after all- but…I've been trying to imagine…what it would be like…if it were you who'd been abducted, not Yao."

His hand was shaking, Yue tightened her grip, "and?" She prodded; _he would probably prefer me being taken to her._ She thought bitterly, Vadim had adored Yao because she was so cool yet so nice. Well Yue wasn't sorry. She was who she was and Yao was who Yao was. Yue wasn't going to apologize for that.

Vadim squeezed her hand back and then let go, he stopped walking, and Yue stopped too, "I decided…that doing so was impossible. I can't imagine what it would be like if you were the one who was kidnapped, I can't imagine what my life would be like without you."

He paused, Yue wanted to say something but even she could see that Vadim really needed to say this but was scared to do so, she was worried that if she said the wrong thing it would frighten him into remaining silent. So she said nothing.

Vadim sighed and took both her hands in his, "look, Yue, what I'm trying to say is…" he hesitated, looking for the right words. "What I'm trying to say is that I love you and was an idiot for not realizing that until I thought about losing you. I love you and want you to be together with me, not Ivan or Kuro."

Yue's first reaction was shock; she hadn't known Vadim knew about her attraction to Ivan. Huh, Yue guessed she must not be as subtle as she thought she was.

Then what Vadim had really said caught up with her.

"You're joking, right?"

Vadim flinched and Yue winced, realizing how bad that sounded. "I mean, Vadim…" her red eyes bore past his blue ones, all the way into his soul. "Are you sure?"

Vadim let go of her hands and gently grasped her elbows, drawing her forwards, "I'm sure." He said gently.

He leaned down as Yue stood on the tips of her toes, "I've never been surer of anything in my life."

Their lips met and for the first time in her long, long life Yue Chung was doing what precious few had ever done. Kissing the man she had loved for over a century.

They broke apart and Yue wrapped her arms around Vadim's neck as his encircled her tiny waist. Hugging like this, with him being almost literally twice her size, was awkward so Vadim placed his hands under Yue's thighs and lifted her gently as Yue wrapped her legs around his waist too and buried her face in the crook of his neck as Vadim buried his in her short, dark hair.

The two of them stayed like that for a long time, just basking in the other person's presence, their unique smell and feel and the knowledge that the other person was still safe, still here with them and always would be. If not, there would be a lot of bloody needles and pipes and a pair of very pissed-off countries. Nothing was going to separate them now.

"Sorry I kept you waiting for so long. I was such an idiot." Vadim whispered in Yue's ear.

She chuckled, "true. But you're _my _idiot. And I would've waited a lot longer for you Vadim."

Sure, Ivan was sexy as hell sometimes and Kuro was a smart, determined little thing but Vadim was the caring one, the one who had always been by Yue, whether he liked it or not, he'd stayed by her. Yue, despite her attitude sometimes, was no idiot. She wasn't Olivia; she knew what was good for her. And she wasn't going to be sucked into some stupid I'm-the-dumb-girl-who-only-likes-the-bad-boy-who-d oesn't-like-me/know-I-exist-and-ignore-the-nice-gu y stereotype. Yue loved Vadim and, by some miracle, he loved her too. Everything else could just go screw itself because Yue didn't care.

Well, almost everything. There was one thing that bothered her…

"Kuro?" Asked Vadim, apparently it was bothering him as well.

"What about him?" Yue asked.

"That's what I was asking you," Vadim replied, pulling away a little, "what are you going to do about him?"

"Why are you asking _me?"_ Yue asked, pulling back also. "I'm not the one he's going to chase around with a katana, I hope you know that."

"I know," Vadim confirmed, "I just thought you might have some…qualms. He is in love with you after all."

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't make myself regret this," Yue whispered, leaning up to peck Vadim's lips once more. "Kuro will just have to learn to deal. I'm sorry but I can't please everyone." Actually, she wasn't sorry. Maybe that made her selfish but Yue wasn't sorry. She was happier than she'd ever been in her life and she could make someone else happy. If the world wanted her to be sorry for that well then screw the world.

Vadim smiled slightly against her lips, "good. I was hoping you'd say that." His mouth firmed into a determined line and for a second Yue thought she was looking at Ivan, not Vadim, "If he thinks he can just take what's mine he's got another thing coming."

Yue smiled too, "_I_ was hoping _you'd_ say _that,"_ she whispered.

The two of them kissed again. Neither of them even noticed Ivan standing behind them until he cleared his throat.

They pulled apart and Yue jumped to the ground, "yes?!" She demanded, not exactly pleased with being interrupted.

If Ivan noticed her displeasure he didn't show it, "I just got two calls, one from this America and the other from this Japan. Apparently two people the pair of you are supposed to know have shown up. And Yao is with one of them. Are you two familiar with Jake and Kuro?"

Vadim and Yue glanced at each other, startled.

"America!" Vadim exclaimed.

At the same time Yue said, "Japan!"

The two of them glanced at each other, _well shit,_ they both thought. It looked like their opportunity to tell their Japan about their relationship would come a lot sooner then they thought it would. They clasped hands reassuringly, neither of them _feared _Japan but he could be a nasty little shit when he wanted to be.

"Kuro. It must be Kuro that Yao is with. My Japan." Yue said thoughtfully. "Could you call your Japan again Ivan? I'd like to speak to him."

Ivan nodded tightly, "I can try, no guarantees he'll answer." He said. He turned and led the way back to his house at a brisk pace. Yue and Vadim followed more slowly, Vadim rubbed his thumb over the back of Yue's much smaller hand reassuringly, "I love you." He told her, the words felt strange and new, but not bad.

Yue smiled, one of the few true smiles Vadim had ever seen her give, "I love you too," she said.

From where he was walking a head of them Ivan couldn't see the happy couple, he could hear them though. Hear the smiles in their voices, hear their loving words. His heart ached, Vadim and Yue being together didn't bother him much in itself, sure he'd had a small thing for Yue, but only a small one.

What bothered the usually imperturbable country was the knowledge this brought with it. Vadim was his opposite, right?

Ivan glanced back at where Vadim was holding hands with his China. That meant that everything Vadim got, Ivan would never have.

He didn't like how things looked between Ivan himself, and _his _China.

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**Yeah, yeah, I know, it's Friday, but only just. And I know no-one cares anyway. Though it's not as bad as my other fic, I embarrassed the crap out of Switzerland, started a HongIce plot, got Lithuania to laugh at Poland's genuine marriage proposal, made Austria the legal drinking age in America, interrupted a kiss between Romania and Bulgaria and put Spain and Romano in the hospital. All in one chapter. And ****_no-one cared! _**

**Wow… I ****_do_**** suck, don't I?**

**Anyway, yay! Pairing! Non-rejected love! *gasp* imagine that!  
R & R guys, let me know what you think,**

**I named this chapter 'Ambrosia' because it means 'your love is returned.'**

**Hope you enjoyed! See ya next week!**


	12. Primrose

**Hello everyone! I'm back. I swear, my internet these days. Grr… it better start working again before I kill all ten people in this house!**

**Er… anyway… many thanks to my beloved reviewers;**

**FangirlOfDOOOOM…er…I'm sorry? Thank you? I'm not really sure how to respond to that but thanks anyway!**

**The wonderful elizabeta H. Austria; here is your next chapter, my impatient viewer. As promised, you will find out what's happening with England and her gang.**

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Chapter 12: Primrose

"What the fuck do you mean he kissed you?!" Jake Jones demanded.

Arthurine Kirkland glared, speaking as best she could with a bruised and sore throat. She was still gasping, even though she'd managed to make him put her down (with a strict order and a kick to the kneecap.

Her throat burned on both the inside and the outside, she tugged her nonexistent collar up higher and, for the first time in a long time, wished she still had her long hair to cover it. She didn't even want to think about what it looked like.

She'd started explaining things to Jake a little while ago but he seemed to be having trouble with the idea of Jean willingly kissing anyone.

"I meant exactly what I said, don't you take that tone with me young man! And watch your goddamn language!" Arthurine snapped, wincing.

Jake actually looked guilty, "sorry ma'am," he said meekly.

Arthurine almost raised an eyebrow; apparently Olivia hadn't gotten strict with him very often.

She rubbed her throat, "well anyway, yes, Jean kissed me. And Olivia saw, she ran off crying. That was about two hours ago, I haven't seen either of them since." Cuz she'd fucked up with her best friend and spent from then til now hiding in a forest.

_Coward,_ she scolded herself mentally.

"So let me get this straight." Jake said slowly, Arthurine didn't think she liked the look in his eye, "after knowing full well that Olivia had been in love with him for thousands of years he declares his love for a woman who looks _exactly like Olivia_ that he met what? Three, four months ago? And this is after spending thousands of years hiding behind the pathetic excuse that he's unable to love when we all know he's just too chickenshit to do so. Is that it?"

"Err…well…" Arthurine tried to think up something to say in Jean's defence that didn't sound like it was an excuse she'd thought up at the last second to defend Jean. She was coming up blank.

"It sounds bad when you say it like that." She said at last, though Jake was equally aware of what she _didn't_ say.

_Yeah, pretty much._

Jake stood from where he was crouched down by a kneeling Arthurine, "I'm going to kill him," he said in a voice so low and deadly England barely heard him.

She sprung up and caught his hand, "don't!"

Her world spun, she had low blood pressure and had just gotten up much too fast after being strangled and slammed against a tree. And it had been a long day.

England staggered, apparently Jake had faster reflexes than Alfred or Francis, and he caught her and cradled her against his chest, as her vision went in and out of blackness.

He tapped her face, "can you hear me?"

She sat up, or tried to, easier said than done when you were being carried bridal style by a homicidal version of the guy you liked.

"I'm fine, just a dizzy spell." She panted, clutching onto Jake's shirt for support with one hand and her own head with the other.

Jake started walking, "am I even going the right d…arn way?" He seemed to be censoring himself at her request.

Arthurine tried to focus her eyes long enough to see the forest around her, "yes, you are. Please, put me down now, I can walk on my own." Her head lolled against Jake's chest, utterly exhausted, _what's wrong with me? Must be all those late nights, and maybe I'm getting old._ She allowed herself a grim smile at that one.

Jake snorted but thankfully didn't press the point.

He saw her house up ahead and just as the back door appeared in view it burst open revealing three people. Two males with dark blond hair and a female with bubblegum-pink hair wearing a long-sleeved powder blue sweater over a white collared shirt and long orange shirt.

Alfred broke away from the other two and ran up to them, "England!"

He reached them; panting, blue eyes alight with worry, "England!" He cried again.

His ex-colonizer stirred weakly, "oh stop yelling you hamburger-loving idiot," she sighed, "I'm alright."

Typical America, he laughed at every time something bad happened but the moment she was in real trouble he was always right by her side, pushy, loud and annoying, making sure nothing else happened to her. Though mostly this was because he was the one who had gotten her into trouble in the first place, or was connected in some way, she thought, with a roll of her eyes.

America held out his arms, "give her here," he snapped angrily, he didn't know who Jake was-though he could make a pretty good guess- or what he was doing here and he didn't care. All that mattered right now was Arthurine. She was all that had ever mattered to him, he reflected.

At first England was annoyed at being passed around like a piece of baggage when Jake handed her to Alfred.

Then his arms surrounded her, she felt the familiar and comforting material of his jacket under her cheek and sighed softly, shutting her eyes again. His familiar and comforting chocolate lynx deodorant and less comforting but just as familiar smell of hamburgers enveloped her and Arthurine couldn't help but smile slightly.

This was the one place in the world where absolutely nothing could hurt her.

_Oh I'm as bad as Olivia,_ she thought ruefully as America, _her_ America, carried her back into her house. _Actually I'm more pathetic than she is; at least Jean isn't hundreds of years younger than she is. Though my chance of getting the guy I love is far better than hers._ She let out another sigh, this one much louder and sadder than the first one.

_And I don't have a freaking chance._

"Are you feeling any better now?" Olivia asked with concern, Arthurine sighed, it'd been about an hour since Jake had carried her back and about fifty-nine minutes since she'd started feeling better. Everyone just needed to relax.

"I'm sorry," Jean said quietly, "I started this."

He caught Olivia's gaze over the couch Arthurine was resting on, red and blue met briefly then they both glanced away awkwardly.

Arthurine saw this but chose not to bring it up. She waved her hand, "this isn't your fault Jean." _Or at least not completely._

"Don't worry about it blondie, after I rip your freaking head off, everything will be great again!" Jake said, coming into the room, hands tightening on his trusty baseball bat.

Jean sighed and his shoulders slumped but he didn't even bother moving away, Arthurine swung her legs over the side of the couch and began to stand as Jake move forwards.

"Jake don't-" She began.

A silvery dagger whizzed past Jake so close he almost lost his nose, he froze, body rigid with horror as the dagger buried itself in the opposite wall. Jean on the other hand didn't even blink, he was used to this.

Arthurine followed the dagger's path backwards to Olivia who had a slightly mad glint in her eyes as she lowered the arm she had used to throw the dagger.

"Now now Jakie~!" She said in a cheery, sing-song voice, "After all these years you should know better than _that~!"_

Jean caught Arthurine's eye this time and rolled his slightly, Arthurine couldn't share the sentiment.

Just then America re-appeared, holding a glass of water in one hand and a damp cloth in the other, seemingly oblivious to the fact that two of the room's occupants had just tried to murder two occupants.

"Can I get you anything else?" He asked worriedly, Arthurine almost sighed, there was nothing wrong with her! She'd been in far worse shape before and he'd done nothing but laugh.

"Get him out of here," she hissed, jerking her head at Jake, keeping the cloth that he'd tried to place on her head (but at least it wasn't a hamburger this time!) in her hands and setting the glass on the coffee table.

America looked at Jake and noticed the baseball bat in his hands, he jumped up and bounded over to him, clapping his other self (though if he'd noticed that he gave no sign of it) on the shoulder. "Dude! How about you and I go grab a burger together!?"

That was much subtler than England had been expecting and she was eternally grateful.

Jake shook his head, "I'm a vegetarian actually." He informed Alfred, whose jaw dropped. Arthurine's eyebrows rose too, she hadn't been expecting that.

"He means 'get out,' Jake," Olivia said sweetly and much less subtly. She stalked over to the wall and yanked her dagger free. "Sorry about the wall Arthie," she said.

"Don't call me that," Arthurine said automatically. The only nicknames she tolerated (other than France's) was the occasional 'Arthur' from one of her brothers or 'Alice' from America.

She smiled, remembering that one. When they'd been younger Canada had had a horrific time trying to pronounce her name, for some reason he just couldn't wrap his tongue around it. It was the same as England not being able to say 'tarantula' when she was younger, America had had a hard time with 'cinnamon' too.

So she'd needed a nickname that wasn't just 'England' so Canada could call her something personal too.

So America had suggested 'Alice' apparently her blonde hair and favourite blue and white dress reminded him of Alice in Wonderland. And hadn't _that_ stuck. They _still_ called her that sometimes.

Olivia, stowing her dagger away in her skirt, walked out the door leading to the rest of the house as Jake turned and went back out the other door into the kitchen. Jean hesitated for a few seconds, then followed Olivia.

This left America alone with England. Alfred shrugged one shoulder to say 'I tried' while Arthurine shrugged one of her own, 'no big deal.'

Outside in the hall Jean hurried forwards a few steps and caught Olivia's arm, "we need to talk."

She stared back at him wordlessly.

America knelt down beside the couch again, "hey England, I've been thinking," he said seriously.

"About what?" Arthurine asked, taking a sip of water. Her bored tone masked her curiosity; anything America had been seriously _thinking _about was cause for interest.

"You know how all of your brother's have big eyebrows?" He asked.

England automatically knew this was going to annoy her, "yes?" She pressed.

"Well, I was just wondering why you don't?" He said seriously.

Irritation flared through her, this was what he'd worried her for? "Well I used to America!" She snapped. "But I gave them all my love and care so they grew up, staged a revolution, stabbed me in the back, broke my heart and threw all of my love into the _dirt!_ But you wouldn't know _anything_ about that, would you America?!"

She got up off the couch and stormed away a few steps as America's blue eyes widened; _I was trying to lighten the mood. Where the Hell did _that _come from?!_

Fortunately England's anger and confusion disappeared much quicker this time. As Alfred turned to leave, mumbling an apology, she ran around the couch and caught his hand. It went much better than when she'd tried to catch Jake's hand and stop him from leaving.

"Alfred wait! I'm sorry. I'm being a bitch to everyone who's nice to me right now." She said regretfully.

She expected him to mumble some excuse and bolt out the room or get all bright and cheerful again and ignore the issue. Instead he laughed slightly and ran a hand through his blond hair, "you're not having a good day, are you?"

She wasn't having a good past four months but England didn't say that. Instead, she shook her head wordlessly. Then she sighed and ran her own hand through her own blonde hair, "And you're not the only person I need to apologize to. I need to go to France."

_"France,_ why, what's he done?" America asked, he knew of her rivalry-like dislike of the country.

"That's the thing, he hasn't done _anything._ He's been perfect and I ripped his head off for it. And now he's not answering any of my calls." England's conscience just wasn't going to let her rest until she'd made things right between them. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tried again, just in case.

Nothing.

"I'll come with you then," America offered, England nodded gratefully.

"I was hoping you'd say that." She admitted.

They were at the door Jake had gone through now when America stopped and caught England's shoulder, making her stop too. "Hey, Arthurine. Wait a sec, there's one more thing."

England blinked at the use of her real name, she didn't think she'd ever heard him actually use it before, "what is it Alfred?" She questioned as he cupped both her cheeks with his gloved hands, playing with the tips of her short hair.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing?" She demanded as he leaned forwards.

America smiled, "changing everything completely."

And then his mouth covered hers.

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**Dudes! That was ****_so _****not meant to ****_happen!_**** The kiss was a spur of the moment decision! But it felt right! **

**Anyway, the plot thickens! Yay! And I named this chapter Primrose because it means 'I can't live without you.'**

**...yeah, my friend and I came up with the eyebrows scene when we realized that Nyo!England doesn't have bushy eyebrows.**

**R & R guys, tell me what you think!**

**Bye! **


	13. Bittersweet

**Hi guys, I'm back. I'm a day late again when I promised I wouldn't be! I'm so sorry. But I just had my last exam two days ago so I've been busy. And yesterday was my birthday so I've been really busy. But I'm here now!**

**To the ever-faithful elizabeta H. Austria, I have to be honest; I doubt this chapter will resolve any of your questions. But I hope you like it anyway!**

**To Night Dawn, glad you like it! Praise and glory to love triangles! And yeah… I often double-space when I change from one paragraph to the other. But fanfiction does not like that, oh-no it does not. So it often changes back to one line spacing after I update, which is annoying. I've been meaning to go over the chapters again and fix this but…yeah…I'll get to it. One day. **

**Anyway, hopefully it worked for this chapter! Thank you both so much for reviewing, you guys rock!**

**And here's chapter 13, enjoy and leave a review guys! I own nothing!**

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Chapter 13: Bittersweet

China laughed awkwardly and subtly tried to remove her arm from Kuro's grip. Kiku sat at the table across from them, his dark eyes impassive. Yao couldn't really tell but she sort of felt he wasn't really happy with this situation, why would he be?

"Look, let's just go back to Russia's place. Yue and Vadim should be there. I'm sure Olivia and Arthurine have found some way to get you all back to your own world, we can end this madness." She said.

Kuro and Kiku eyed each other across the table, "agreed, my jet will be ready in an hour," Kiku said, standing and pulling out phone, walking away from them. Yao glanced after him with concern.

"Is it just me, or is he acting more like me than he should be?" Kuro asked in a mock sweet voice.

"There does seem to be something troubling him that he's not telling us," Yao agreed mildly, ignoring Kuro's tone.

Kuro snorted and took a sip from his glass, "don't delude yourself sweetheart, he's been an ass since the second he got here. If there's something bothering him, it must be eating at him inside. Hope it's really hurting him."

He sounded so like Yue, the woman who had raised him, that Yao had to fight incredibly hard to keep the smile off her face, she covered her mouth with her sleeve and faked a cough to hide her laughter.

Kuro didn't buy it, "what's so funny?" He demanded.

"Oh nothing," Yao replied airily, "I was just thinking about the impact of family."

Kuro looked at her as though she had just sprouted a second head, "…right," he said after a while.

He too got up and left, going the opposite way to Kiku, China watched him leave and then turned to stare at the door her ex-foster sibling had left through, "what is wrong, Kiku?" She murmured softly.

Yue Chung was staring listlessly out the window again, this time at the front of Russia's huge house when a car pulled up and three people got out. Yue's eyes widened, the person who'd gotten out of the front passenger seat was a small Asian male with a bowl cut and huge brown eyes wearing a white military uniform. He looked almost exactly like her foster brother but she didn't know this man personally. She knew the two who got out of the back though.

"Vadim, Ivan! Get here now!" She yelled. She heard two replies and the sounds of footsteps.

"Yao's here, she's got Kuro and your Japan with her," she said as the two of them reached her.

Vadim looked surprised, relieved, confused and anxious all at once. Ivan just smiled sweetly, "I knew he'd find her." He went out to the front of the house to greet the three of them.

Vadim and Yue glanced at each other, "well, we were going to have to tell him eventually, right?" Vadim said philosophically.

Yue tugged on a short strand of her black hair, "yeah, I know, I'm not worried or anything. It's just…" she twirled the strand around her finger, "I guess I do feel kinda bad, for breaking his heart." She took Vadim's hand with her free one, "I don't regret this though."

Vadim gave an unusually heavy sigh and squeezed her hand briefly, "I don't want to say this Yue but…I'm really not so sure Kuro has anything to break in the first place."

He squeezed her hand again before dropping it and walking towards the newcomers. Yue tugged on the lock of her hair so hard it hurt, "you're wrong about him," she whispered.

After they all got out of the car Yao barely had time to stretch the kinks out of her old bones when she was swept into a huge bear-hug by the usually reserved Russia, "Ivan. Can't. Breathe," she gasped.

He released her, "glad your back," he said simply.

She grinned, despite herself, "glad to be back, I don't even know where Kuro took me."

Too late, Yao realised her mistake, Ivan's eyes looked like two chips of pale purple ice. "So, the little other-Japan is the one who took you, da?" He said, the sweet, yet menacing tone of voice sending shivers up and down Yao's spine. Even after all these years, even after knowing full well that he was actually a pretty great guy underneath his terrifying exterior, Russia could still scare the crap out of her with his intimidating aura.

He was scaring the shit out of her right now.

"No. Nononononono, it's not like that-aru!" She yelped, waving her arms, _he was trying to kidnap Yue Chung, not me._ She didn't say that though, it wouldn't help. "Don't hurt him," she begged, she didn't want to hit Ivan over the head with a wok because of Kuro –what? No! She didn't want to hit Ivan over the head _at all!-_ but she would if she had to.

Russia seemed to stop and consider her words for a second before shrugging and taking her hand, "I suppose you're right, Yue and Vadim's surprise should be punishment enough, da? Let's go inside." He tugged on Yao's hand and she walked with him, Russia stopped by Kiku, "thank you for finding her," he said sincerely.

Japan folded his arms and looked away; _okay seriously, did he hit his head or something_? Her brow furrowed, _what is wrong with you-aru?_

She turned back to Russia, "and just what is this surprise Vadim and Yue have in store for Kuro? Don't tell me I need to hit _them_ over the head with a wok?"

"Nothing bad. You'll see," Russia said mysteriously, leading her towards the house. They reached the door but as she walked through it something prompted Yao to turn around and look back, Kiku was still standing by the car, lost in thought; Kuro appeared to be saying something to him and Kiku was nodding occasionally. Yue and Vadim walked towards Kuro and his dark red eyes flicked to them. When they were still a meter or so away from him, Vadim leaned down and, very obviously, kissed Yue on the mouth.

Yao froze; Kuro did too, though his only outward reaction was a tightening of the skin around his eyes.

Yao's hand gripped the doorframe so hard the wood creaked, "I see. So that was their surprise, didn't have the guts to tell him they were in a relationship so they decided to take him by surprise and break his heart in one go. That isn't even bad, Russia, it's just plain sick," China turned on her heel, brown ponytail whipping around her, and stormed off down the nearest corridor, let someone else deal with it for a change.

Russia looked from her, to Kuro, to Kiku who was still standing impassively in the driveway, oblivious to his surroundings.

_I feel as though I'm missing something here._

Leaning against the balcony, looking out into the starry, snow covered night, Kuro Honda turned slightly as someone approached him.

"Am I interrupting something?" Yao asked.

Kuro shook his head wordlessly and she came to stand beside him, looking over the railing.

Kuro had both hands fisted gently on the railing that he hadn't bothered to dust free of snow. Both his hands where so numb it took him a few seconds to realize when China placed her dainty left hand over his right one.

He glanced up at her, surprised, Yao picked up his hand and held it between both of hers, trying to offer warmth and comfort at the same time.

"I'm sorry about Yue and Vadim; you didn't deserve to find out like that."

"Actually, I did," Kuro confessed.

Yao didn't press and she didn't judge him, "maybe you did. But it was still the wrong thing to do." She rubbed his hand again.

"I disagree," Kuro didn't argue his point and neither did Yao; they just stood there in silence for a while then;

"I'm swearing off guys, I'm so done with all this drama-aru," China heaved a sigh. "I don't know how anyone could find all this drama exiting. It's exhausting-aru!"

"I wouldn't know personally but I've been told that swearing off men can get rather boring," Kuro said, he was almost smiling now.

"I dream of boring these days. Boring would be the new Heaven for me," said Yao with a sigh.

"I disagree," Kuro said again. "You know just because you ignore a problem doesn't mean it'll go away, we'd have gotten rid of more than half the wars that way if that did work. But it doesn't. You can ignore this for as long as you like but Russia's not going anywhere. And your own feelings for Japan wont just dry up overnight."

China glanced down at him, creeped out, "you are much more perceptive than you let on," she murmured.

Kuro did manage a proper smile this time, "no actually. Just that when you get Vadim to start talking, he never stops. And you need to talk to Kiku."

"You're damn right I need to talk to Kiku," Yao agreed. "I'm starting to think he's been possessed or something. I just can't tell what's up with him! Aiya!" She hit the broad stone railing with her free hand in frustration.

"I think I might know," Kuro murmured.

China ponced on him, "you do? Than tell me, please. I can't think what might be bugging him so much! I've tried asking but he's so secretive and stubborn."

"Nope, can't do that, you need to find out on your own," said Kuro, smiling slightly.

Yao wacked him with a ladle for a bit but that was all she could get out of him on the subject, "forget about me, I'll be fine out here, go find him." He squeezed one of her hands like Russia had done earlier and then dropped it.

"And thank you."

Yao glanced at him quizzically, "but I haven't done anything."

"Trust me, you did a lot."

China left and after staring at the door she had disappeared through for a while, Kuro pulled himself up onto the railing and lay down, balancing on it, facing the stars. A couple of snowflakes drifted onto his face as he stared up at the billions of twinkling stars. Slowly his eyes slid shut.

"Kiku? Can I talk to you?" Yao poked her head around the door of the room Japan was using for the night.

It had been late by the time they had gotten back, after they had all eaten dinner together it was decided that the three newcomers would stay the night too and they would all figure out what to do in the morning, starting with calling England.

Russia had texted both England and France that China had been located earlier. France expressed his sincerest relief but they had yet to get a hold of England, which was odd. She was usually so good at answering her phone.

Japan turned, "certainly, China-san," Yao frowned, oh, so they were back to _China-san,_ where they?

"What's wrong with you Kiku-aru?" Yao asked, annoyed.

Japan raised a slim eyebrow, "forgive me, China-san, I have no idea what you-"

"-I think you do Kiku," the older nation replied, cutting him off.

The fight went out of Japan, so did all of the aloofness, "sorry," he muttered, "I was not expecting all these emotions, they threw me off balance."

China blinked, "what emotions-aru?" She asked.

Kiku turned away and placed his katana on the bedside table, he didn't turn back around. "All of them. The fear I felt when Russia told me you were missing. The disgust I felt when I realized that your kidnapper, the man who had potentially hurt you had _my face._ The rage I felt when I found out that you were staying with him _willingly-"_

"Willingly?!" Yao interrupted, it was unlike Kiku to share so much of himself with anyone and she was grateful but she really had to object, "I was _kidnapped_ in case you've forgotten-aru!"

Kiku did turn around now, he gave Yao a cool look that froze her in her tracks, he was so different now to how he usually was. He was throwing _her_ off balance.

"Are you telling me that you honestly could not have escaped Kuro's clutches if you had wanted to?" Kiku asked softly. Yao didn't answer, of course she could have, and they both knew it.

Japan took a step forwards and took both of Yao's hands, he gripped them so tightly that the pressure started to hurt. China winced, what was with all of the hand holding all of a sudden?

"But most of all, was the sadness and absolute despair I felt when I thought you had chosen Russia."

Yao understood what Kiku had said immediately but it took a few seconds for the knowledge to sink in.

_Wait. WHAT?!_ China winced again, mentally this time; _I knew I should've sworn off men. _Despite herself, her heart rate picked up until her heart was thudding erratically against her chest.

"You can't be saying what I think your saying," she mumbled through stiff lips.

Japan's gaze was soft, yet unyielding, "I am actually." He was very close.

"B-but, what made you realize-?"

Kiku actually smiled, _"realize?_ Yao I've been aware of my feelings for you for decades now. And well aware of your feelings for me for _centuries."_

"You-" heat flooded China's face, turning her cheeks the same colour as her crimson shirt. "You _knew?"_

Japan nodded.

"W-why did you say something?" She was completely stunned and mortified by this revelation.

Kiku shrugged, "you did not wish for me to know, so I kept quiet out of regards for you. Before that, when I first realized, I did not share those feelings so I did not bring up the subject in an attempt to avoid the issue. But it can no longer be avoided."

"B-But don't you think I'm sick-aru?! Twisted? Perverted?" Demanded Yao, Kiku had to, there was no other way he could look at this, was there?

A small smile crossed Japan's face; he reached out and gently took her cheek between his thumb and forefinger. "Of course not, how could I when I felt the same way about you? When I knew how perfect you really were?"

_Perfect._China closed her eyes and shuddered, she had been so wrong about him. "Sorry I doubted you Kiku."

He leaned forwards, so did she, "that's perfectly alright Yao."

They were inches apart...

"I've waited for this for seventy years," Kiku whispered.

Yao smiled, "I've waited for this for five times that."

They were centimetres apart...

Kiku stopped, "but I lost all right to this, to you, long ago. I'm sorry."

Yao kissed him, "please don't be an idiot, out of all of us, you're the only sensible one."

Japan brushed back a lock of her brown hair, "sorry."

Yao smiled and leaned forwards again, pecking him on the nose, "see you tomorrow," she promised before darting out the door.

"I'm sorry," Kiku whispered as the door clicked shut.

Outside in the corridor Yao stared at her knees wordlessly, she played a decent part but she was no longer acting. She had been so sure she would never have Japan. And now, considering her emotional reaction to what essentially surmounted to a confession of love, she was beginning to think she was exactly right.

She flexed her fingers, "this is everything I've ever wanted. I was _so_ happy when he said that. So why did I run away like a scared child? What is wrong with me-aru?"

_What is wrong with me?_

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**Complete! Hope you guys liked it. Things are really wrapping up now! The chapter after the next one should be the last one if everything goes according to plan. (Plan? What plan?)**

**NiChu or RoChu guys? FrUK or USUK? If you don't tell me I refuse to be held responsible for sinking your ships.**

**I named this chapter 'Bittersweet' because it means 'truth' and this chapter was bittersweet, Hehehe…**

**R & R guys, hope you enjoyed.**

**See ya!**


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